Avengers False Victory
by gohan108
Summary: Eight months after the events of The Winter Solider things are going well. Steve is adjusting to life at Avengers Tower, and the dynamics involved. He is also dating a certain red haired Russian spy, by the name of Romanoff. All of that changes when Steve receives a message from Howard Stark asking for help.
1. Chapter 1

Hello everyone thank you for deciding to read my story. I started this story as an attempt to improve my writing skills. There are mistakes and I apologize for them in advance. I'm currently searching for a beta, but I've yet to have any luck.

Disclaimer: The Avengers are owned by Disney/Marvel, and not by me.

Without further ado I give you Avengers False Victory. Please enjoy and leave a review.

* * *

The noise, that's the first thing that comes to Steve's mind when someone ask him what it's like living in the tower. It seemed like there was always something going on, or some ruckus being raised. More often than not it seemed that Tony Stark was at the center of it. Today is not going to be any different apparently, the team are in the common room celebrating. Tony had endowed some university with an old Stark Industries building in Svalbard. To use as some sort of research outpost, Steve wasn't too sure or interested to be honest.

The department head a Dr. Grayson had come to the tower to sign some papers, and finalize the deal. Which meant only one thing a small celebration.

None of this really interested Steve but he participated all the same, just sitting on one of the huge sofa's drinking a beer.

"Mind some company captain?"

Steve turns his attention to the owner of the voice. "Well it is your tower Ms. Potts."

Pepper shakes her head at Steve, and sits down on the opposite end of the sofa. "Well it's 12% mine, the other 88 apparently belong to Tony since he did all of the heavy lifting."

Pepper smiles at Steve seeing the confusion written all over his face. "Sorry Steve it's a private joke between Tony and myself. Oh and Steve for the hundredth time please call me Pepper."

Steve lets out a small sigh " I know, I'm sorry Pepper."

Pepper felt sorry for Steve she could see he was clearly uncomfortable with the informal party that Tony was throwing. Out of all of the Avengers that had moved into the tower Steve was the most reserved. He was also the member of the team that was the most hesitant to move into the tower to begin with.

Looking back on it Pepper can't really say that she blamed him. The first month that everyone was at the tower together, well crazy doesn't really begin to describe it. Bruce of course had moved in first, right after the battle of New York. Then eight months ago after S.H.I.E.L.D. fell Maria Hill was hired, and she moved in, her first months were spent between the tower and hearings on Capitol Hill. Four months ago both Clint and Thor showed up at the tower, but they both only stay at the tower half the time. Then finally six weeks ago Steve and Natasha had arrived at the tower, both looking worse for wear. When Clint asked what had happened they both replied in unison "Absolutely nothing.".

Of course Pepper suspected there was a whole lot more to that story than either Steve or Natasha were saying.

"Is all of this really necessary?" Steve ask pulling Pepper from her reverie.

"Well you know Tony." Steve smiles and nods.

"What about me?" Asks Tony who walks up with Bruce and Dr. Grayson in tow.

"Oh nothing Steve and myself were just commenting on your love for celebration." Pepper's reply causes the inventor to feign looking hurt.

Not to be outdone in a verbal exchange, the inventor had his excuse at the ready. "Well who doesn't love a good party?"

"I second that." Says Clint as he, Thor, Maria, and Natasha walk over and join the others at the sofa's.

Feeling vindicated Tony continues. "See Peps Barton knows exactly what I'm talking about. Anyways Dr. Grayson wanted to meet Cap so here we are."

Always polite Steve stands and extends his right hand to the doctor. "Dr. Grayson, it's a pleasure."

The Doctor takes Steve's hand in both of his. "Oh Captain Rogers it's an honor to meet you sir. My wife is going to be very jealous when I tell her about this."

"I'm sorry that your wife couldn't be here today doctor."

"Yeah so was she, my wife is a huge fan. She's a history professor at California State. She specializes in World War II."

At the mention of the war Steve gets uncomfortable. Everyone notices including Dr. Grayson, who lets go of Steve's hand. "Captain I'm sorry, I didn't mean to stir up any bad memories."

Suddenly worried that he had upset Stark's guest, the soldier felt the need to assure the doctor. "No doctor it's fine really, I'm sorry I didn't mean to sour the moment."

"Well Captain you're one of the reasons while I'm here."

"Excuse me."

"Well it will be easier if I show you, one moment please."

With that the doctor walked back over to the bar where he, Tony, and Bruce were earlier. Once there he begin to dig through his messenger bag. Maria, Clint, and Natasha immediately tensed. The three ex S.H.I.E.L.D. agents anticipating the worse, a by product of their previous profession. In less than a minute the doctor produced a yellow envelope from his bag.

Walking back over to the group he hands it to Steve. "One of my students found this in the facility, and it has your name on it."

Steve took the envelope from the doctor and looked it over. Sure enough on the front of it in very neat writing it was labeled Captain Steve Rogers. All eyes are on the soldier.

It's Dr. Grayson that breaks the silence. "My wife figured it's probably something left over from the war. We found all sorts of equipment, even some medical equipment. That Mr. Stark has been kind enough to let us keep. That's not even the strangest thing we found a little room that appears to be nothing more than a heater. We figure it was most likely used to help warm up soldiers that were exposed to the elements for too long."

Steve is transfixed on the envelope in his hand, when Tony pulls him back to reality. "Hey Capsicle it's polite in this century to say thank you when someone hands you something."

The soldier quickly collects himself. "I'm sorry. Thank you Dr. Grayson I really appreciate you bringing this to me."

The rest of the team could see that Steve was drifting off. He did that sometimes, he would get lost in memories of a life long gone. A life he had before he crashed the Valkyrie into the ice. Steve looks around suddenly realizing that he was drifting, deciding that now was a good time to excuse himself from this party.

"Well again thank you for bringing this to me doctor, and it was a pleasure to meet you. Now if you will excuse me I have some other matters to attend to." At this Steve turns to leave, walking to the elevator he gets on, and presses the combination for his floor at the tower. The others wait until he is gone before they speak again.

"I'm sorry it was not my intention to upset Captain Rogers."

It's Bruce who allays the doctor's concern. "No he's not upset Dr. Grayson."

It's Clint who speaks up next. "For us World War II is ancient history, but for Steve it was just a couple of years ago." He says this with a somber look on his face.

Realization dawns on Dr. Grayson "Oh I'm a fool that thought never crossed my mind."

"Yeah most people don't think about it." Replied Maria who was sharing a sofa with Natasha. "It used to happen all the time when he worked for S.H.I.E.L.D. ."

Pepper took it upon herself to change the mood. "Tony there are some papers in legal that Dr. Grayson needs to sign before he leaves."

"That's right." Tony agrees signaling an end to the festivities.

Tony, Pepper, Bruce, and Dr. Grayson excuse themselves and board the elevator.

"J.A.R.V.I.S." Tony says while listening to Bruce and Dr. Grayson talk about his research.

"Yes sir." The A.I. responds

"J, we need to go to the 13th floor." Tony responds and the A.I. gladly complies.

This left Thor, Maria, Clint, and Natasha in the common room by themselves. All four sitting in an enjoyable silence. It's Maria who speaks first.

"Well I need to get up to operations, and browse through today's intel." Operations was the floor of the tower that the Avengers actually operated out of. It housed the armory, a conference room, training facility, gym, hanger bay, a small yet state of the art medical center, and Maria's office.

Clint took this opportunity to leave as well claiming to have a favor to do for Thor.

It was Thor who stood up next. "Well Stark does know how to have a good time, alas I must take my leave. I am to meet Jane in Japan I should be gone no more than a week. If an emergency happens, I have my Stark issue phone."

"Take care big guy." Clint waves as he's walking towards the elevator.

With that Thor was out on the balcony and a second later he was gone. Leaving Natasha alone with her thoughts.

"J.A.R.V.I.S." Natasha says calmly.

The A.I. is quick to respond as always. "Yes Miss Romanoff. What can I assist you with?"

Natasha takes a quick look around making sure that she is in fact alone. "Where is Captain Rogers now?"

"Captain Rogers is currently in his quarters, and to answer your next question; yes he is alone."

"Thank you J.A.R.V.I.S.."

"Your welcome Miss Romanoff."

Natasha left the comfort of the sofa, and begin to make her way to Steve's quarters. She wanted to check on him. Her and Steve have been dating now for two months before they ever even came back to the tower. Both Steve and Natasha had wanted to keep things a secret albeit both for different reasons. Natasha hated the fact that J.A.R.V.I.S. knew, but it was impossible to hide anything from the A.I. since he was literally wired into the whole tower. Natasha smiled to herself as she remembered when her and Steve had seen one another again for the first time since parting ways at the cemetery in D.C.

Steve and Sam had been in Kiev tracking down a lead on Barnes. One night as Steve exited the bathroom after taking a shower Natasha had been sitting in a chair waiting for him. She had tracked him down because she needed help dealing a with a rather nasty element from her past. An unfortunate side-effect of putting all of her secrets out on the web for everyone to see. Over the course of the mission things got crazy, and well in the process her and Steve admitted how they felt about one another. If Natasha is being honest with herself there had been tension between her and Steve since things went south in D.C., she's surprised it took them as long as it did to act on their feelings.

Natasha is brought out of her reverie when the elevator arrives on Steve's floor.

"Thank you J.A.R.V.I.S."

"Your quite welcome Miss Romanoff." With that Natasha made her way to Steve's quarters.

* * *

Steve walked into his quarters and immediately tossed the envelope onto the coffee table that occupied the center of the room. He then sit down in a chair and sighed heavily. Steve hated getting lost in his head like he had with the doctor. It happened often when he was first thawed from the ice. Now it tends to only happen when someone brings up the war to him, and even then it doesn't happen all the time. Steve decided to clear his head by drawing, he picked up a sketch pad and a pencil up off the coffee table. He then begin to sketch; he has no idea how long he's been sketching when his door chime sounds.

Getting up Steve walks over to the door and checks the door panel. His mood brightens instantly when he sees who it is. He then presses the release to open the door.

Natasha walks right past him into the living area, and she knows instantly that he's been sketching. Steve follows her back and takes a seat on the sofa this time and invites her to sit.

Which Natasha does a little to eagerly, sitting right next to Steve if they were any closer Natasha would've been sitting in his lap. She doubted he would mind any. Natasha starts the conversation.

"You alright?" Natasha ask the concern evident in her voice.

"Yeah. You know us old timers always thinking about the good ole days." Steve leans back with a cocky grin on his face.

Natasha leans her head so that it's resting on Steve's shoulder. "Yes and you had to walk five miles both ways to school."

Steve laughs despite himself. "I wouldn't go that far. With my asthma I would've been lucky to make it five blocks let alone five miles." Steve decides to change the subject to something more pleasant.

"So Nat are you ready for our date tonight?" Steve ask wrapping his arm around Natasha.

Natasha snuggles up just a little closer. "Sure am. I'm even thinking about going blonde tonight." This caught Steve's attention.

"Deciding to change it up a little bit are we?" Steve asks with a playful tone.

"Well I've gone brunette for our last two night's out. I don't want to get too comfortable."

They both had taken to wearing little disguises to throw people off who might recognize them. This helped them keep some degree of privacy. Since they have been living at the tower they also leave at different times for their nights out to avoid suspicion. Natasha could care less if the team knew they were dating, but Steve didn't want them to know for a few reasons. Deep down Steve knew they would be found out eventually. He wouldn't like it, but he'd deal with it when it happened.

Natasha looks at Steve expectantly. "So..."

"So what?" Steve replies closing his eyes.

"You never told me where we are going tonight."

Understanding dawns on Steve. "Sorry."

"It's called Freddy's. It's a small Italian restaurant in Mid-Town."

Natasha smiled. "Sounds good. I'm looking forward to it."

"I'll have J.A.R.V.I.S. send you the address."

It was then that they were interrupted by the A.I..

"Miss Romanoff, Captain Rogers I think you both should know that Dr. Grayson has left the tower. Dr. Banner is now boarding the elevator to come back to his quarters."

With the announcement Steve and Natasha knew that their reprieve was over. Natasha kisses Steve on the cheek as she gets up.

"Looks like it's the stairs for me." She says smiling.

Steve follows her to the door before replying. "I'm sorry Nat."

"It's fine, really. I'll see you tonight." With that Natasha walked out making her way to the stairs.

Steve notices the time, and decides that he should check in with Hill. To see if anything requires his attention. As team leader Steve made it a priority to know what was going on. Plus it often times made things easier when people actually talked in his experience. He also liked know exactly what was going on, as opposed to getting his information second hand. One of the many things he picked up in the army. Steve called the elevator and waited on it to arrive. Once it did Dr. Banner exited the elevator and greeted Steve.

"Captain." Bruce says with a nod.

Steve replies much the same. "Dr. Banner."

Steve then boards the elevator where Clint is waiting.

"Barton. Where are you headed?" Steve ask the resident archer.

Clint replies, while typing on his phone. "Operations. Yourself?"

"The Same." Steve says as the doors close and the elevator resumes traveling to the operations floor.

Clint breaks the silence first. "Going to check in with Hill?"

Steve nods in response to Clint's question. "Yes. I thought I would see if I can lend a hand. I'm not sure how much intel she had to go through today to be honest."

Clint nods still enthralled with his phone. "You still worried?"

Steve pauses for a moment before he answers. "Yes I am."

The response draws Clint's attention away from his phone. "Did it ever occur to you Cap that some speed bumps are unavoidable?"

"I know, and I don't think they are unavoidable. I'd just rather we ironed them out before something like New York comes our way again."

The soldiers reply seemed almost like he has had this conversation a hundred times already. Clint supposes that's exactly the case.

Since coming back to the tower Steve had been advocating team building at least three times a week. Everyone seemed to be behind the idea with Tony being the only hold out. Tony would always give the excuse that the team worked together flawlessly during the Chitauri invasion. Which generally brought Thor around to side with Tony. With Natasha and Maria siding with Steve, while Clint and Bruce stayed out of it. Though Bruce tended to try and be the voice of reason. The team had been on little missions since reforming, and aside from Tony not staying on task they had all went off without a hitch. At least until the team got back to the tower Then Steve and Tony would argue over chain of command and Tony's need to be in the center of everything. It's at that point that Tony would normally bring up what he referred to as Steve's control issues and his inability to adapt.

They've avoided an all out blow up, but Clint was sure it was only a matter of time before Tony's ego and Steve's patience reached their limits. Truth be told Clint agreed with Steve New York had been by necessity and from Clint's understanding it had been a bumpy ride to get there. This was different; this was by design nobody was forcing them to work as a team now. They didn't have a common foe like Loki to rally against now, no tragedy like the death of Agent Coulson to unify them.

Clint understands that they have been fortunate that, the team hasn't had a major crisis since they have all reformed. It makes Clint laugh to himself when he thinks about it. Even the Hulk will listen to Captain America, but not Tony Stark no Tony Stark listens to no one except Tony Stark. Clint thinks that Steve has been to accommodating to Stark. If this were S.H.I.E.L.D. Stark would've been put in his place after 20 seconds. Clint thinks that's what Steve needs to do, Stark needs to fall in line and he needs to do it before someone is injured.

"You alright Barton?" Steve was looking at Clint with a hint of concern.

"Yeah. Sorry about that Cap. I was just thinking is all."

Steve can't help but laugh at that. "That's fine. It seems to be going around today."

With that the elevator stopped and opened up revealing the operations floor. Steve allowed Clint to step out first, Steve then took the opportunity to do the same. They then continued to walk towards Maria's office.

"So Cap would you mind if I gave you and Hill a hand with the intel?" Clint is genuinely curious, even though he is pretty sure he knows the answer.

"Well I can't speak for Hill, but I'm all for it. Wait don't you have anything better to do?" Steve asks dubious of Clint's interest in going over today's intel reports.

Clint picks up on Steve's suspicion immediately. "Well I had asked Nat to spar. Instead she told me she had other things to do."

Steve instantly saw where this was going. "Which means you would have to be upstairs with nothing better to do than listen to Tony babble on about god knows what."

Clint nods at Steve's response. "Yep that exactly. So it's this or take a nap."

Maria interrupts their conversation. "What's this talk about a nap?"

It's Steve who jumps to the archers defense. "Well Maria it's this or Tony's ramblings about everything."

Maria chuckles in understanding. "Wise choice Barton. Well than shall we get started?" With that both men took a seat and listened to what Maria had to say.

* * *

Natasha arrived at the restaurant first which was to be expected since she had left the tower first. Her and Steve made it a point to never leave at the same time unless it was something non-relationship related in order to avoid suspicion from the others. Which was difficult since both Clint and Maria had worked for S.H.I.E.L.D.. She was confident however that no one had caught on to them.

Right on time she could see Steve being shown to the table by the waiter. As always he looked handsome, he wasn't dressed too fancy. They had avoided going places where they would have to dress up to nice. That would be too much to explain to the team.

Once Steve arrived at the table he couldn't help but stare. "You look nice Nat. Being blonde suits you."

Natasha raised an eyebrow at Steve's comment. "Are you saying I look better as a blonde Rogers?"

Steve instantly on guard for fear that he had misspoke, begin to back pedal. "No Nat that's not what I meant at all. Your natural color is way better."

Natasha smiled to herself, because she had Steve right where she wanted him. She always loved seeing him squirm, it quickly became her favorite new hobby after they got partnered together at S.H.I.E.L.D.. " So what you are saying is that I'm an ugly blonde? Is that it Steve."

Steve is quickly realizing he has no escape now. "What? No! Nat it's impossible for you to ever be ugly."

Natasha smiled "Says the man that still wears his hair like it's 1940."

That's when he realizes that she got him again. "You know Nat one of these days you're going to get tired of this."

Natasha shakes her head. "Only when you quit being such an easy target,"

Steve chides himself for allowing her to get him yet again. Secretly though he loves that she does this. he loves that she keeps him guessing and on his toes.

"So how was the meeting with Hill?" Natasha starts.

"It was rather uneventful to be honest nothing that required our attention."

Natasha looks at Steve a devilish smirk crossing her face once more "So no jay walkers or little old ladies that need help crossing the street?"

He couldn't help but laugh at this. "No not a one."

She feigns being upset "Come on Rogers it's no fun when you don't play."

He grins from ear to ear before responding. "I know. I guess this means I win."

She can't hide the surprise from her face. "Well played solider, well played. It looks like you maybe picking up my bad habits Steve."

Steve attempted to look put out. "Well we can't have that can we? It may hurt my squeaky clean image."

Natasha scoffs at his remark. "It just might."

Their banter is cut short as the waiter arrives with their food. They begin to eat and talk about their day. they also begin to plan their next date. They sit at the table talking and just enjoying each others company until the waiter informs them that the restaurant will be closing soon.

Steve looks around noticing for the first time that they are practically alone. "Well looks like I should pay, and we should head back."

Natasha sighs "Yeah we've been gone for almost three hours. I'm surprised Tony hasn't called."

Steve hands the waiter some cash "Don't worry the butler is covering for us."

The waiter takes the money. "I'll be right back with your change sir."

Steve shakes his head in protest. "No you keep the change for yourself, I'm sorry we kept you so long."

"Well Nat I guess we should make our way back to the tower."

Natasha agrees reluctantly "I left first, so you go back first. I'll come in about a half hour later."

Steve agrees "Alright but first." Steve leans down and he and Natasha share a kiss before parting.

* * *

It was after midnight when Steve arrived back at the tower. It would probably be close to one o' clock before Natasha arrived back. Steve walked into his quarters and flopped down in his chair. He had just seen Natasha and already he missed her. He went to retrieve his sketch book from the coffee table, and noticed the envelope that Dr. Grayson had been kind enough to bring him. He had honestly forgotten about it since this afternoon.

Steve decided to open it, despite the bad memories it threatened to bring to the surface. Once he opened it all that was inside was a single disc, along with a single slip of paper the paper contained six numbers he recognized the numbers instantly as his S.S.R clearance code. Steve is perplexed he knows this isn't from World War II.

"J.A.R.V.I.S.." Steve calls for the A.I..

"Yes Captain Rogers. What can I assist you with?"

Steve who is looking at the disc in his hand as if it were a long lost artifact. "Are you busy?"

"Captain Rogers that's a pointless question, I have plenty of processing power to handle any request."

Steve smiles, living in the tower run by an A.I. had taken some getting used to. Despite that Steve liked J.A.R.V.I.S.. "J.A.R.V.I.S. can you play this disc?"

The A.I. was prompt to respond "I'm not sure Captain, try inserting the disc in your terminal and I will scan it."

Steve gets up and walks over to the terminal, Tony had these computer terminal's installed in everyone's quarters. Steve rarely used his, in fact he only used it for Avengers business. Steve takes a seat and inserts the disc in the proper slot on his terminal. Then J.A.R.V.I.S took over.

"One moment Captain, I'm currently running diagnostics on the disc now."

Steve understood what J.A.R.V.I.S. was telling him despite what people thought about him and modern technology, he understood more than people thought. A low beep informs Steve that J.A.R.V.I.S. has finished scanning the disc.

"Captain the disc is safe to run. It appears to be a video disc."

Sudden the soldier is very curious. "You mean it's a Blu-Ray?"

"No sir think of it like a early version of DVD that was never made available to the public. The time stamp on the disc is 12-10-91."

Steve's a little lost at this point, but is thankful for J.A.R.V.I.S. patience. "Okay. J.A.R.V.I.S. can you play the video?"

"Yes sir I can give me just a moment."

Steve is grateful not for the first time since moving into the tower for the presence of the A.I. "Thank you J.A.R.V.I.S.."

"You are most welcome sir."

Steve sit back and waited for the video to start. Once it does Steve is not prepared for the scene that plays out before his eyes. On the screen is Howard Stark a much older Howard Stark than Steve knew. Steve recognized him from photos he had seen since he was thawed from the ice.

"Hello Steve if you're watching this video then it means two things. The first being that my wife Maria and her team successfully thawed you from the ice. The second is that I'm most likely dead. Steve, I need your help..."


	2. Chapter 2

I would like to thank everyone for all of the favorites and follows. I would also like to thank everyone who left a review. Hopefully this chapter is a bit easier to read. I also think I may have found a beta. So hopefully chapter three will have even fewer mistakes. As it stands now all mistakes are my own.

Disney/Marvel own the Avengers and everything that entails. That said please enjoy chapter two.

* * *

Steve sat in utter disbelief, he had just watched the message from Howard Stark for the third time. He was still having a hard time wrapping his head around everything he had just learned. Steve had learned at Camp Leigh that HYDRA had been responsible for the death of Howard and Maria Stark, but now he knew why. Well if Steve is to believe Howard's message, it's because Howard found out about HYDRA.

Not only had Howard found out about HYDRA, but he'd also apparently discovered the wreckage of the Valkyrie. Steve looks at the clock that is displayed on the terminal screen. Quickly taking note of the time 3:00 a.m., Steve instantly rises from his chair changing into some more casual clothes. Steve then calls for J.A.R.V.I.S.

"J.A.R.V.I.S. I need some help please." Steve's tone containing a sense of urgency.

The A.I. always quick to respond. "Of course Captain Rogers. What may I do to assist you?"

Steve looks around his quarters, old memories threatening to make their way to the surface.

"J.A.R.V.I.S. I'm leaving the tower, I will be gone most of the day. I know this is a lot to ask, but I need you to cover for me with the others." Steve knows he's asking a lot of the A.I..

This time there is almost hesitation when the A.I. responds. "Are you asking me to... lie to the other Avengers Captain?"

Steve takes in a deep breath before continuing. "No not lie, in fact I'm not even going to tell you where I'm going. Just so you won't have to lie, but you saw the video. Howard asked me to deal with this, and right now I'm not even sure there is a this to deal with." The tone in Steve's voice is almost pleading.

"Very well Captain Rogers, but I must say I do not like the idea of you going into this alone."

"Thanks J.A.R.V.I.S. I didn't know you cared." Steve replies.

"Well while I do care sir. I'm also concerned for my own safety. Should you be injured and Miss Romanoff learns of my complicity in the matter."

Steve can't help but laugh at that. Steve also feels a slight bit of relief at J.A.R.V.I.S. compliance, when suddenly another thought strikes him. "Nat's not going to like this one bit when she finds out."

"No sir I wouldn't want to be you, when she does find out."

Steve can't help but laugh at that too, despite what he may soon be facing. "Well for both our sakes J.A.R.V.I.S. maybe there will be nothing to tell her."

Steve didn't believe that of course all of the Avengers knew by this point, that not all of HYDRA went down with the ship when S.H.I.E.L.D. fell. Steve's not sure what he would find when he got to the location Howard had specified in his message. Steve grabs a messenger bag that he uses to carry his art supplies in when he goes out to sketch. Checking to make sure it's empty he slips the strap over his shoulder. He then leaves his quarters and taking the elevator makes his way to the parking garage that is reserved for the Avengers.

Steve secured his bag to the back of his motorcycle then mounts it and leaves the tower, heading to a place he never thought he would be going to again in his lifetime. After driving for over an hour Steve finally arrived at his destination. It looked so much different now with metal covering where glass windows were once. A metal door in place of the one Steve remembered from so long ago. Seeing the keypad on the door Steve entered his old S.S.R code, there was a click and with that the door opened to reveal a scene that looked almost exactly like it had when Steve was here during the war.

Antiques were everywhere Steve walked over to the counter and pressed the switch underneath that opened the door that would take him into the project rebirth lab. A place he was certain he would never see again, truth be told he was surprised that Howard's message had directed him here. According to the message Howard had bought this place from the government, and re-purposed it given what Steve knew of his old comrade he had a pretty good idea of what that meant. Sighing to himself Steve begin the walk that would take him to the place that had changed his life forever.

* * *

Every member of the team left in the tower were all sitting around the conference table waiting on the perpetually late Tony Stark. The meeting was scheduled to start thirty minutes ago and as usual the inventor kept everyone waiting.

It's Clint who voices his frustration first. "You know would it kill Stark to be on time for one of these meetings just once, and to make matters worse cap isn't here either."

Bruce looks up from his book at Clint's statement. "You don't think that Steve and Tony are having another argument?"

Maria sighs at the thought of Tony and Steve arguing, it was a sight the rest of the team has become accustomed too since Steve had arrived back at the tower. Being Deputy Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Maria was used to seeing agents disagree over how best to handle a mission. However Tony and Steve took it to a whole different level. Steve would point out things from a tactical stand point, and Tony well... Maria honestly thought sometimes Tony argued with Steve just because he could. Maria is pulled from her thoughts as Tony enters the conference room.

"Good morning. I see everyone has assembled like a good team." Tony says as he enters the conference room. Only to stop when he looks around the table. "I know Thor is off somewhere with his doctor. But where the hell is Capsicle? These team briefings were his lame idea to begin with." Tony has an accusing tone to his voice.

It's Natasha who voices the groups assumptions. "We thought he might've been with you having another lovers quarrel."

Tony scoffs at Natasha's remarks "We don't have quarrels, we have spirited debates, and I haven't seen him since the party yesterday."

This gets everyone's attention. If Steve wasn't with Tony then where was he?

Bruce voices his concerns first. "This isn't like Steve to be late to anything. Maybe someone should go check on him."

"That won't be necessary Dr. Banner. Captain Rogers has left the tower." J.A.R.V.I.S. informs the team.

Tony who is almost irate is the first to respond. "J what do you mean he left the tower?"

"I'm not sure what part of that you don't understand sir."

Tony is boiling at this point. "No... no I mean where did he go?"

J.A.R.V.I.S. responds immediately "Captain Rogers left the tower early this morning, he said that he had some personal matters to attend to, and that he would be back later. I'm afraid that Captain Rogers is not very forth coming with his plans."

Natasha is curious about J.A.R.V.I.S. explanation concerning Steve. She then makes a mental note to ask Steve about it on their date tonight. Something about all of this feels wrong, all of her instincts are telling her that for Steve to leave like this is trouble. Maria brings her out of her thoughts as she announces that she will hold the briefing without Steve. Tony is mumbling to himself about how he is going to have words with Steve over this one.

Maria decides she should start the briefing before anymore time is wasted. 'Okay the first item on the agenda is Istanbul."...

* * *

Steve sit in silence at the desk that held all of the evidence that Howard had collected. Steve hated to admit it, but Howard may have been on to something. The problem is that even if Howard had been onto something, and Steve is pretty sure that he was. All of this evidence is over 20 years old, which would've been fine if Steve had been thawed when Howard had originally planned. Instead this evidence is next too useless, some of these players went down with S.H.I.E.L.D. others he's never even heard of. Suddenly Steve's stomach is growling looking at his watch he realizes that it's just past noon. Coming to the realization that he has been here for over eight hours Steve decides he needs to go and find some food. Leaving the way he came in and making sure to lock the door Steve gets on his motorcycle and drives in search of food.

Steve eventually settles on a small diner about 10 blocks from the lab. Steve seats himself in a corner hoping that no one would notice who he was. He did hate being a public figure, he hated it during the war and he hates it now. Make no mistake he enjoyed the attention at first, but that novelty wore off rather quickly. Still with what was going on it could potentially cause a problem if someone recognized him here, he would be asked questions that he'd rather not have to answer at the moment. Still this... whatever this is, of that Steve is still uncertain would be better if Natasha was here with him. Steve wasn't looking forward to that conversation not one little bit. Still until he knows exactly how far Howard's investigation goes. Then for now keeping Natasha and the rest of the team for that matter in the dark is the best thing he can do right now. Hopefully Howard didn't uncover anything they don't already know. Not likely Rogers. Steve foresees a couple of awkward conversations in his future.

"Excuse me sir may I take your order?" Steve so lost in his thoughts hadn't notice the waitress come to his table.

"Yes ma'am I would like your T-bone steak and baked potato with a order of chicken tenders, and the largest lemonade you have please."

The waitress takes note of Steve's order "Alright I'll be right back with your drink."

"Thank you ma'am." Steve replies politely.

The waitress was quick to return with Steve's lemonade "Here you go sir, your food will be ready shortly." The waitress gives Steve a smile.

Steve notices her staring at him, it's a look he is familiar with, one he has been on the receiving end of since he got the serum. Steve decides to end this before it goes someplace he is uncomfortable with. "Excuse me ma'am."

"Yes sir." The waitress is a little too eager to respond to Steve.

"How late are you open?" Steve asks trying to sound as casual as possible. This is a lesson that Natasha taught him. Not to sound too interested or too eager, to make your inquiry sound as casual and innocent as possible in order to not arouse the suspicion of the mark. The waitress is quick to respond. Really taking any reason to engage with Steve, and latching on with both hands.

"Sunday through Thursday we are open until 9:00 p.m. . Then Friday and Saturday we stay open until 10:00 p.m. ."

Steve is quiet for a moment before responding. Again one of Natasha's lessons. "That's great I really like the atmosphere here. I'm thinking that I might bring my girlfriend here on our next night out." Instantly the waitress posture changed, Steve could see her mood towards him shift. He felt bad, but he had never been one to lead people on and after that little incident in Monaco he wasn't going to risk Natasha's wrath again. Especially over some misunderstanding that can be avoided. With his response the waitress smiled at him, turned and walked off.

Steve made a note to leave the waitress a nice tip. While waiting for his food to arrive Steve let his mind wonder, he's had a lot of time since he originally saw Howard's message. Since then Steve has been doing a lot of thinking not just about HYDRA, but the fact that if things had gone slightly different. He would've been thawed out 23 years sooner, how different everything would've been.

Of course Steve doubted he would've adjusted any better. However it would have been nice to have had some familiar faces there helping him. It most likely would've made adjusting a lot easier. Then again according to Howard's message there wouldn't have been a familiar face if Maria Stark's team had thawed him out in '92 either. Howard clearly stated in his message that he was most likely already dead. Killed by HYDRA, and that he wasn't sure who he could trust at S.H.I.E.L.D.. Steve gets angry thinking about how alone his old friend must've been in his last days. Walking around S.H.I.E.L.D. not knowing who was HYDRA and who wasn't.

Steve is brought back to reality with the arrival of his food. Putting all thoughts of long dead friends, and HYDRA out of his mind for the moment Steve silently vows to enjoy his lunch.

* * *

Arriving back in her quarters after a nice lunch in the tower cafeteria. Natasha was exhausted and it was barely after 1:00 p.m., of course things have been a bit hectic today. It started with Tony throwing another tantrum after the briefing about Steve's absence. She had no doubt that as soon as Steve stepped off the elevator he and Tony would be in a fight. After the briefing she allowed Clint to talk her into a sparring session. The session went longer than normal since they both also usually sparred with Steve. Since he wasn't there at the moment they both decided to spar with each other for an extended period.

On occasion Hill would join the three of them, but she always managed not to spar with Steve. Natasha suspected she knew the reason why. While Steve was at S.H.I.E.L.D. he had more than a few admirers. Rumor had it that Deputy Director Hill had been among them. There were several female agents that had hated the fact that Fury had paired Steve and Natasha together. Looking back on it Natasha was glad that Fury had paired them off. Of course she would never say that to Fury, whom she doubted she would ever see again. At least until he needed something that is. Of course Natasha had learned that Steve hadn't been as oblivious to all of the admirers as people thought. He was just busy trying to figure out this new time he found himself in, and where his place was in it. Combine that with the fact that Steve is horrible when it comes to women, and it's no surprise he was single for so long.

Of course Steve had his own way of showing his feelings. He dropped his search for his best friend to help her when she had found him in Kiev. It was his way of showing her how much she meant to him. She's still not sure it's a good idea for him to find Barnes. While she can sympathize with what was done to Barnes more so than most people can understand. She's worried about what finding him will do to Steve. She knows that he is not going to be the same Bucky Barnes that Steve knew. He can't be it's impossible. Steve's loyalty is one of the many reasons Natasha fell for him in the first place. Still she knew that it would be hard on Steve, and while she would be there to help him through it. She hated the thought that he would have to go through it at all. After the business in Monaco Natasha had offered to help him continue his search for Barnes, but he had refused her offer. Natasha has wondered in the weeks that followed if he had put his search on hold because of her. Steve knew she had almost been killed by Barnes while they were on the run in D.C., he also knew about what had happened outside of Odessa. Natasha suspected that Steve had continued his search in his free time using the resources of the tower, but chose to keep quiet about it in an attempt to avoid any discomfort between them.

Natasha had debated calling Steve on their private phones. She had insisted that they get burner phones so they could keep their relationship a secret. Steve had been concerned about their relatively new relationship being under the scrutiny of the others. Natasha suspected he was really concerned about Stark. She was certain that he would say something to really anger Steve. During their first month at the tower there had been a few times when everyone Natasha included were certain Steve was going to hit the loud mouthed inventor. Natasha remembers one occasion when it had gotten so bad that Bruce had left the floor for fear of the Hulk making an appearance. Tony hadn't even noticed that Steve had grabbed a hold of the railing and was crushing it with the strength in his hand. Thankfully Pepper managed to calm Stark down, it was only after Steve stormed off that the billionaire had realized just how close he had come to getting punched in the face. Courtesy of one Captain Steve Rogers, Natasha is honestly surprised Steve didn't do it. God knows she wouldn't have shown that sort of restraint. Of course everyone Natasha included thought Stark took things too far that night. Steve being Steve he just walked off and didn't look back, didn't say anything he just walked off.

That's how Natasha knew how angry he truly was, Natasha had noticed that when Steve was truly upset he tended to keep it too himself. Natasha supposes that is a by product of the time he grew up in, and the fact that before the serum he couldn't have done anything with his emotions anyway due to his health problems.

Natasha was enjoying the silence her quarters afforded her. Despite the comforting silence she still couldn't get her mind off of Steve. Suddenly her phone rang startling her, she notices that it's her private phone. She knew instantly who it was, only one person had the number after all. In one motion she picks up the phone and answers it. "Hello" Natasha answers, expecting that an explanation is forthcoming.

"Nat are you busy?"

Natasha eager for answers responds "At the moment no. Why is everything alright?" Natasha asks her voice laced with worry.

"Yeah everything is fine. Look Nat I'm sorry I left without telling you. It wasn't planned I promise. I'm actually calling to see if maybe we can move our date up. I was wondering if four o' clock would be good for you?"

Natasha can hear the solemn tone in Steve's voice. This has to be about Barnes that's why he went off without so much as a word Natasha surmises. She doesn't like the idea of Steve tracking down leads on Barnes by himself, and makes a mental note to address the issue when she sees Steve. "Well I have to meet Tony and Bruce at two. They want my input on some project they are working on. After that though I should be able to meet you." Natasha could hear Steve's voice brighten when he responded.

"Great so four o' clock at the theater in Mid Town. I can't wait. Look Nat I need to go I have one stop to make before I can meet up with you, and I have no clue how long it's going to take."

"Okay I'll see you then. Oh and Steve don't do anything stupid."

Steve gives a small laugh at Natasha's orders "Yes ma'am. Bye Nat." With that Steve ended the call from his end.

Natasha laid back on her sofa she still had about 10 minutes before she had to meet Banner and Stark. She would use this time to get ready for her date with Steve.

* * *

Steve pulled into a alley and drove to the end of it where there was a garage style door with a keypad beside it. A back entrance into the project rebirth lab that Howard had installed so people wouldn't see someone going in and out of a supposedly empty building. Once Steve had gotten into the project rebirth lab earlier he was amazed at all of the changes Howard had made.

He had bought up not only the antique store that served as a front for the lab but also the buildings adjacent too it. He literally owned half the block, Howard had made significant changes to the place as well. He even took the time to create a manual for Steve's benefit. The place had pretty much everything Steve would need to fight a war. The medical area was still there but it had been upgraded considerably since Steve had been there after receiving the serum. Howard had converted the officers lounge area into a living space with a small kitchen, restroom, living area, and a small bedroom. Howard had also added some areas to the facility such as the back entrance with an elevator that would accommodate a motorcycle. The war room as it had been called in Steve's day was still largely intact, but much more modern.

The armory was also still where Steve had remembered it. Once Steve saw it he knew that Howard had been very busy. It was full of weapons and ammunition, Howard had designed a number of guns, and knives to Steve's specifications. He had even gone so far as to make replicas of Steve's Colt .45. On the far wall had been shelves with some kind of explosives that were labeled Nitramene. Steve had never heard of the explosive before, the shelves were labeled (DO NOT TOUCH UNTIL YOU HAVE READ THE NITRAMENE SECTION OF THE MANUAL.). Steve hadn't gotten through the whole manual yet it was just too much.

There had been two things that had really captured Steve's attention. The first was the safe in the far left corner of the room. Steve had to consult the manual to figure out how to open it. He was shocked at what he had found; inside the safe were 20 gold bars. Howard's message had assured him he would have the resources to fight HYDRA. This is the last thing Steve had expected to find and it would defiantly help, should he end up in a shadow war with HYDRA.

However the item that Steve found most fascinating was in a case on the far right wall. Inside the case was a combat suit. it was without a doubt nice. It was designed a lot like the stealth combat suit he wore when he had worked for S.H.I.E.L.D.. It had no emblem on the suit itself but the buckle on the utility belt was in the design of his shield. The manual had claimed that the suit had a metal that Howard referred to as adamantium. Which the manual states is almost indestructible, it also states that this metal is in the upper breast plate of the suit to protect Steve's heart and lungs. The metal is also in the knuckles of the suits gloves. The manual notes that with Steve's power behind it this metal striking someone with full force, it will take them out of the fight. The manual states that Howard refrained from putting the metal in all of the suit because he knew Steve wouldn't want to be weighed down. The most interesting feature of the suit is what the manual referred to as chameleon mesh. By adjusting the emblem on the suits belt buckle the suit would change making Steve appear invisible. The downside to this is that it drains the power supply in the belt so Steve would only be able to use it for 20 minutes at a time. Steve can't help but think about how much Natasha would enjoy the chameleon feature.

There was no doubt that Howard had pulled out all of the stops to make sure that Steve could fight HYDRA. Although Steve had yet to figure out how this place still had power. Steve wondered how many laws Howard had broken to keep this place juiced up, and off the grid.

Steve tore himself from his thoughts about the changes that Howard made to the lab. He needed to sort through the evidence files one more time before he went to meet Natasha. Steve made his way back to the office which used to be the observation room. He then went to work going back through the evidence that Howard had collected.

* * *

Natasha was running late to meet Tony and Bruce, she had taken longer to get ready than she had anticipated. She hoped that Tony and Bruce wouldn't keep her too long. She'd hate to be late to meet Steve, she had already decided what she wanted to say to him regarding Barnes.

Arriving at the lab/workshop that Tony and Bruce share on the common floor. She could she through the glass that the two geniuses were in the middle of a conversation. So she decided to let herself into the lab. Natasha decided to get their attention otherwise she would be here all day. "Ahem...Excuse me, but could you two put the bromance on hold?"

Bruce goes about his work. Tony on the other hand can't help but respond. "I'll have you know red that we were having a scientific debate."

Natasha shakes her head at the billionaire. "I don't care Stark. What is it you two want to see me about?"

"Don't get snippy with us Romanoff we are actually doing something for the team. Unlike spangles who couldn't even be bothered to show up to his own briefing this morning."

Natasha sighs inwardly she shouldn't be surprised that Stark was still hung up on Steve missing the briefing this morning. She only hoped he would be over it by the time Steve got back. Some how she doubted they would all be that lucky. Bruce prevents the situation from deteriorating any further.

"Well Natasha we made you a new Widows Bite gauntlet. We were hoping you would try it on so that we can see if any adjustments need to be made."

Natasha nods in agreement, while Bruce produces the new gauntlet. Tony and Bruce had systematically began to upgrade everyone's gear with the exception of the Hulk and Thor.

Natasha secured the gauntlet around her wrist. "It's lighter than the one I have now. I like that, but it's a little loose around my wrist. It moves around too much."

Bruce is typing on a pad. while Tony looks at how the new gauntlet fit her wrist. "Well shit this is no good Bruce. Seems we need to size it down just a little."

Bruce answers Tony without ever taking his eyes away from the pad he was using. "Yes I'm making a note to adjust the power flow relays to account for the change in size."

Tony nods at that. "Alright Romanoff give it back and you're free to go."

Natasha removes the gauntlet, and hands it to Stark and is out of the geniuses lair before she can get roped into anything else. Quickly making her way back by her quarters to pick up her bag. Natasha was out of the tower and on her way to meet Steve five minutes later.

* * *

Between Howard's message and finding the evidence at the lab had all taken a toll on Steve. All he wanted to do was see Natasha, he only hoped she wouldn't press him too much for information. He wasn't ready so share not yet not until he knows for sure that there is something to share. Steve arrives at the theater only to find Natasha waiting for him. He noticed her Corvette as soon as he pulled into a parking space. Natasha who is waiting with her back leaned up against the car. Spots Steve immediately, and she motions for him to join her. Steve wastes no time making his way over to Natasha. He has wanted to see her all day.

"Hey Nat. Have you been waiting long?"

Natasha moves toward Steve and wraps her arms around his neck, kissing him. "No. I've only been here for a few minutes." She responds between kisses.

"I'm sorry." Is all Steve manages to say before catching his breath. "Nat we should really get our tickets or we'll be late for the movie."

Natasha shakes her head at Steve. "There has been a change in plans. Get in the car we're going some where else."

Steve complies moving to get into the car he turns to look at Natasha. "Are you sure you don't want to see the movie?"

Natasha nods. "I am. Besides if I really wanted to see the movie I've already had a couple of offers while I was waiting for you." Natasha replies with a smile.

Steve is quick to retort as he gets himself situated in the car. "In those jeans and that shirt I'm not surprised."

Natasha turns to look at Steve a seductive smile on her face. "Are you trying to flirt with me Rogers?"

Steve looks bashful "That depends. Is it working?"

Natasha starts the car before replying to Steve's query. "Maybe. Now shut up Rogers and let me drive."

After driving for a half hour. Natasha pulls into a tennis court that is marked closed until further notice. Steve turns to Natasha with a confused look on his face. Natasha could sense Steve's confusion. "This court is closed so that the turf can be replaced. So we can talk and not be disturbed."

This gets Steve's attention. "Talk. Is something wrong?"

They step out of Natasha's car and make their way to the bleachers. Natasha sits down first inviting Steve to take the spot next to her. Steve's concern is almost palpable. Natasha has a pretty good idea of the conversation that Steve thinks is about to take place. Natasha can't help but be amused at how insecure he is when it comes to women. "Look Steve I owe you an apology."

Steve interrupts Natasha before she can finish. "It's alright Nat... I mean I... well... I can't blame you. I didn't know how to date back in my day. Now it's... well I know it has to be difficult being in a relationship with a guy like me."

Natasha had been afraid of this being where his mind would go. Steve's confidence around women has never been great. In fact Natasha is pretty positive that had she not made the first move her and Steve would still be dancing around their feelings. Determined to put Steve's mind at ease Natasha turns so that her whole body is facing Steve, she places both hands on his face and looks him dead in the eyes. "Steve listen to me, this is not that conversation."

Steve lets out a breath he was holding in, and visibly relaxed.

Natasha removed her hands from Steve's face and took his hands in hers before she continued. "When I tracked you down in Kiev I knew you were there following a lead on Barnes. Then I showed up and asked you for your help. You dropped everything to help me out, I admit things got out of control fast. Then we ended up in Monaco and after things wrapped up we came back to the states."

Steve unsure where this conversation is going attempts to interrupt Natasha. "Natasha..." Steve is quickly cut off.

" No. Let me finish." Steve nods urging Natasha to continue. "I'm sorry that you had to cut your search for Barnes short. I'm sorry that it's my fault. I know that our relationship was new and... Well I'm sorry if I made you feel like you couldn't continue to search for Barnes."

Steve is touched, but it's important that Natasha know the truth. "Natasha I want you to know that you never made me feel like that. Truth is Sam and myself had been searching for Bucky for nearly six months. Before you showed up in Kiev. Truth is..."

Steve Hesitates attempting to figure out how to phrase what he wants to say. "Truth is Natasha I couldn't let you walk away from me again. All that time searching for Bucky, allowed me to come to a conclusion. Bucky doesn't want to be found, at least not yet. I know I'll find him some day. I'll never stop looking, I owe it to him. Just know Nat that you will always come first no matter what."

Natasha looked at Steve fondly, she didn't allow many people to see this side of herself. Natasha quickly got a handle on her emotions so that she could respond. "Steve I don't want you to stop looking. I do however insist on one thing. No matter what promise me you will not go after him by yourself."

Steve nods in understanding he gets where Natasha is coming from. There is no telling what state of mind Bucky will be in when Steve finally manages to find him. It's really a simple request, one that Steve is all to happy to comply with. "Sure Nat. I promise when I finally do find Bucky I will not go after him alone. Feel better now?"

Natasha smiles seductively as she scoots onto Steve's lap and begins to kiss him. "Yes I do."

Steve gladly returns the kiss.

The two of them set in silence for a while just enjoying being able to be this close. This level of intimacy is something that life at the tower denies them for now. Finally Natasha speaks breaking the long, but comfortable silence. "I know we agreed to keep us quiet, Especially until things at the tower settled down. But maybe we should just go ahead and tell the team. It would make this so much easier. We wouldn't have to leave the tower all the time."

Steve nods wrapping his arms around Natasha and bringing her closer. "If that's what you want to do, then that's what we'll do. I'd do anything for you Nat. I lo..."

Natasha moves away from Steve and turns to look at him. "Don't! Don't say that. Once you say that you can't take it back. To be honest I'm not sure I'm ready to hear it."

Steve couldn't hide the hurt on his face. "Natasha... Look I understand. I just want you to know how I feel about you. I'm sorry I made you feel uncomfortable."

Natasha caresses his cheek. "You haven't made me uncomfortable. I know how you feel you show me everyday, but I've never done this not for real. Anytime I have done this it's been an assignment, and I have had to say those words to a mark. When I say those words for real I want it to be on my terms."

Steve takes her hand and gently kisses it. "I understand Nat. I'll make you a deal I won't say those words to you until you say them to me first."

Natasha doesn't know how she managed to land someone as good and understanding as Steve Rogers, but she is glad that she has him in her life. "Thank you Steve. This means a lot."

Noticing that it's getting dark Natasha checks her watch. "It's a little after six we should really be getting back."

Sad that the moment is coming to a end Steve agrees. " Yeah you still need to drop me back at my bike."

They leave the bleachers and make their way back to Natasha's car when Steve asks a question. "So when do you want to tell the team?"

Getting into the car and fastening her seat-belt Natasha looks at Steve. She can tell he isn't looking forward to the team finding out. Although she suspects he is more concerned with a certain billionaire inventor finding out than the rest of the team. "How about we see how things play out over the next week or so. Then make a decision on when. Unless it just needs to come out."

Steve satisfied with Natasha's answer agrees. "Alright I'll leave it up to you then. When ever you think it's time to tell the others is when we will tell them."

Natasha smiles at Steve's willingness to let the relationship move on her terms. Just something else he's willing to do for you Romanoff. Natasha still hasn't asked Steve about his personal business. While she suspected it had something to do with Barnes she wanted to make sure. "So did you get your personal business taken care off?"

Steve lets out a frustrated sigh from his place in the passenger seat. "No I didn't even make a dent. It's most likely going to keep me busy for a while it looks like."

This piqued Natasha's curiosity. "Anything I can help with?" Steve shakes his head "No not right now at least. Should the need arise rest assured I'll call on you."

"You'd better. Don't forget I know where you live Rogers." With that they had arrived back at the theater. Natasha dropped Steve off at his bike. Then headed for the tower.

Steve still had to go back to the lab, he really needed to think of a new name for the place. So he could pick up his messenger bag with the files he was taking back with him to the tower. He also had one more stop to make before he could return back to the tower, and he was dreading it.

* * *

It was nearly three hours later when Steve finally arrived back at the tower. He was intent on going directly to his quarters and begin his investigation. He is emotionally exhausted he used the last of his composure for Natasha.

J.A.R.V.I.S. however informed him that Tony had ordered him to bring Steve to the common floor as soon as he arrived back. "I'm sorry Captain Rogers Mister Stark insisted."

"It's fine J.A.R.V.I.S. I'm going to get this over with then I need to have a word with you once I get to my quarters. Is that alright?"

"Of course sir." The elevator drops Steve off on the common floor where he sees everyone is gathered having a good time.

Tony rises from the spot on one of the many sofas in the room the second he sees Steve exiting the elevator. The inventor has been relishing this encounter all day long. "Capsicle where the hell have you been?"

Steve sighs he expected this, he'd hoped to avoid it but expected it none the less. "I had business that needed to be attended to I'm sorry."

Tony will not be brushed off. "Damn right you're sorry those stupid briefings were your dumb idea to begin with. Yet you choose to take off whenever it suits your fancy."

The others are watching tensely. All of them knowing that the inventor has been stewing on this all day long.

Steve speaks up to counter Tony's rant. "Look I didn't plan on this happening alright. I'm also sorry that I missed the briefing. Truth be told I'll be missing more, since I failed to get everything taken care of today. Chances are I won't be around here much for the next week." Steve turns to leave to go back to his quarters.

This only adds to Tony's ire. "Where the hell do you think you're going, and what is in the shopping bag? I mean you couldn't find time to be at the oh so important briefing, but you found the time to go shopping."

Steve's shoulders slump in defeat it's something no one in the room misses. "If you must know I went to an electronics store, and bought myself a laptop computer."

Again Steve's response only serves to further the billionaires rage. " I have laptops here. What are they not good enough for you? What do you need with one anyways? It's not like you use much of the tech around here anyway." By this point Tony is practically yelling.

It's what Steve does next that shocks everyone in the room including the inventor. "Please... Please... I'm begging you can we please not do this tonight? You win okay. You win. Just... Please stop... Please." There was a tone of defeat to Steve's voice that unsettled everyone in the room. None more so than Natasha. She knew something was wrong, this was more than just a dead end lead on Barnes.

Tony realized it too his shoulders relaxed and then surprised everyone in the room with his response. "Sure Steve. I'm sorry."

Steve with his back still turned toward everyone shakes his head. "No Tony you don't have anything to be sorry about. I'm the one that is sorry. I'm so sorry Tony for everything." With that Steve boarded the elevator and requested that J.A.R.V.I.S. take him to his floor.

Once he was gone Clint speaks up. "Okay am I the only one that's worried about cap?" Bruce nods his head in agreement. "No something is definitely wrong Steve seemed beat. I wonder what happened to him today."

Tony returns to his seat next to Pepper. "That didn't seem like Steve, he's always up for a fight. He really played dirty this time."

This draws Maria's attention. "This most likely has to do with the Winter Soldier. I have a source that says he was spotted in New York yesterday."

This revelation brings Natasha into the conversation. "Did you share that information with Steve?"

"No I stay away from Winter Soldier intel unless Steve asks me directly."

Pepper the only non-combatant among them pipes up next. "The Winter Soldier that's Steve's friend from the war right. The one that worked for HYDRA?"

Clint answers before anyone else can. "Yeah HYDRA found him and experimented on him to make him the Winter Soldier. I know my Captain America history Bucky Barnes was the only friend Steve had before he became Captain America."

Maria eyes him disbelievingly "How do you know that Barton?"

Clint boast a sly smirk. "Simple really. Phil Coulson." This gets a laugh out of everyone. It was well known that the late Agent Coulson was one of the biggest Captain America fans in existence.

* * *

Steve arrived back in his quarters and quickly set out to work. "J.A.R.V.I.S. I need you please."

The A.I. was ready "Yes Captain. I've been anticipating your call since the elevator."

Steve nods as he removes the items out of the shopping bag, and begins to setup the new laptop. "J.A.R.V.I.S. I have a question for you. How would you like to be my partner?"

The A.I. is interested. "Me be your partner sir? While I would be honored. What exactly would I be your partner in sir?"

"Well I'm pretty sure Howard was onto something. Something more than just S.H.I.E.L.D being compromised. The problem is the evidence is over 20 years old. So I'm starting at the beginning with what drew his suspicions in the first place." Steve explains as he searches for the wireless network that will let him connect the laptop to the towers wi-fi. Natasha had taught him how to do a few of the more mundane task with a computer that people took for granted.

"I see sir. May I ask why you think there is more to the late Mr. Stark's investigation?"

"Simple almost all of the evidence had to do with corporations. From what I can tell only one had any direct ties to S.H.I.E.L.D."

"That is interesting sir. But what would any of this have to do with HYDRA?"

"That's what has me concerned J.A.R.V.I.S.. Why did a corporation lead to Howard discovering HYDRA? How does that even happen?"

J.A.R.V.I.S. signals his understanding of Steve's logic. "I see your point sir. That is indeed quite the leap. You believe that HYDRA has assets that we are unaware of?"

"It would explain a lot."

Steve was waiting while the computer connected to the tower. "Okay J.A.R.V.I.S. can you access this computer now?"

"Yes sir. What is it you want me to do with this inferior machine sir?"

"Can you make it safe? You and I will be the only ones to access it. I plan to use it solely for this investigation and nothing else."

The A.I. sounds disgusted by the thought of working with this machine. "Very well sir I have interfaced with it, but this machine will need some work done to be made safe. That's not even considering what needs to be done to it to bring it up to our standards sir."

Steve moves to unpacking the files he brought back from the lab and putting them on the coffee table next to the laptop. "Our standards J.A.R.V.I.S.?" Steve asks amused.

"Yes sir everything in this tower is state of the art. That includes myself. I will get to work on this machine right away sir. Oh dear this is a problem."

Steve looks up from the files. "What's wrong J.A.R.V.I.S.?"

The A.I. doesn't know where to begin. "This poor machine is running a Microsoft based operating system. The horror this machine never had a chance I'm afraid."

Steve is confused Natasha's lessons didn't cover this. "Is that bad?"

There is clear disappointment in the A.I. when he responds. "Bad doesn't do begin to cover it sir. How would you like it if you were given clothes to keep you warm? Only to discover after you put them on that they're full of holes. This is going to require stronger measures I'm afraid. I'm going to need your help Captain."

Steve suddenly becomes uncomfortable. "Sure. But this is not my area I'm afraid."

"That's quite alright sir I simply need you plug something into a port. Everything you need is already here. The second drawer on the terminal contains multiple cables. I need you to take out the one that looks like a black phone cable. Once you have it I need you to plug it into the matching port on the machine."

Steve complies with J.A.R.V.I.S. orders "Okay that's done"

"Very good Captain. Now there is a sliding panel just above the terminal screen. I need you to slide it to the left. Once that is done insert the other end of the cable into the port in the wall."

Steve does as instructed. "Alright it's done. What now?"

The A.I. responds curtly. "Nothing I will do the rest. I can only hope this machines hard drive is clean. I shudder to think the networks it has been connected to."

Steve nods not understanding anything the A.I. is talking about. "Good I'm going to take a shower. Do you think you will be done by the time I'm finished?"

"Yes sir this machine will be ready by the time you are finished."

Steve gathers a fresh changes of clothes. "Thank you J.A.R.V.I.S.." Before the A.I. can respond Steve is in the bathroom.

Steve takes a longer shower than necessary, as a result he emerges from the bathroom half an hour later feeling refreshed. "J.A.R.V.I.S. how is it going? Is the computer ready yet?"

J.A.R.V.I.S. voice suddenly fills the room. "Yes sir. I took this machine and lifted it up from it's humble beginnings. Of course there is only so much I can do sir. It is now ready for you to use it. If I may ask sir what is your plan?"

Steve sits down in a chair and collects his thoughts. "Well Howard might've been on to something. Did he learn anything we don't already know now? That I don't know. What I do know is that this evidence is over 20 years old."

J.A.R.V.I.S. acknowledges Steve's quandary. "That is quite the problem sir. What do you plan to do about it?"

Thumbing through the files he brought back to the tower, Steve clues the A.I. into his plan. "Simple I'm going to start from the beginning. It was a company called Halo International that initially raised Howard's suspicion. So that's where we are going to start is with Halo International. That is going to be our focus. We start there and follow the evidence." With that Steve and J.A.R.V.I.S. begin their investigation. Neither the soldier or the A.I. could predict what they would eventually uncover.


	3. Chapter 3

Hello everyone sorry this update took so long real life has unfortunately gotten in the way of my non work endeavors. I would like to think everyone who has Favorited and followed this story. Hopefully it will not be another six months between updates. I would also like to thank Amy Ravenheart for deciding to become my beta. I can't thank you enough for your help. I also went back and updated the first chapter so it should now be easier to read.

Disney still owns Marvel and the Avengers and all of the characters

* * *

The team was, along with Pepper enjoying a nice breakfast in the dining room on the common floor. Stark had caterers prepare breakfast every day for them. It was just one of the perks of living at the tower. Today however, everyone noticed the absence of one certain super soldier. Steve had to consume more than an average person due to the serum that courses through his body, so it was unusual for him to miss a meal. Steve always made a point to be social when the team ate together. Tony, who was busy sipping juice from his glass, just couldn't help but to point it out.

"I guess Capsicle is too good to dine with the rest of us."

Pepper is quick to chide the billionaire. "Tony that's enough. Can you not see that Steve has clearly a lot on his mind?"

Tony scoffs at Pepper's remarks. "All I could see last night was that he played dirty. I had him dead to rights and he knew it. So he pulled that I'm-sad routine. I didn't think Spangles had it in him. Well I've got news for Captain Buzz-kill: he owes me a fight."

Clint who is buttering a piece of toast looks at Tony in disbelief. "What do you mean he owes you a fight?"

"Simple, Legolas. I'd been working all day yesterday on exactly how I was going to stick it to the boy scout. He then somehow managed to get me to drop the whole thing. Ergo, he owes me a fight. It's that simple."

The others at the table can't believe what the inventor just confessed to. Maria, however, is not that surprised by Stark's admission, but before she could voice her displeasure, Natasha speaks up.

"Really Stark? You've got to be the dumbest smart person I know."

The rest of the table nodded in agreement with the spy.

"You know, Steve could really hurt you if he wanted. You do know that, right?" Pepper reasons, her voice a mix between worry and annoyance. She understood both who and how Tony was. She should, considering that she's been with him long enough. However, not everyone shared Tony's sense of humor.

Maria feels the need to reinforce Pepper's point. "She's right Tony. Remember the railing that used to line the upper level?"

Tony nods in understanding. "Look. I like Cap, I really do, and I admit I went too far that night. I may or may not have been a little drunk. But don't you see that anyone else would have hit me? And believe me, I deserved it. Steve didn't; he just walked away. I mean, that's not normal. Who does that? I don't like that. In fact, I hate it. It bothers me that he is so rigid. On the battlefield he is calm, cool, and collected. Here at the tower he is calm, cool, and collected. It bothers me a lot that nothing seems to get under his skin. Come on, it bothers you guys too, right?"

Clint disagrees with the inventor. "No. I like the fact that Cap is a cool customer. Besides, he is so private, we have no idea how he vents his frustrations."

"Or who he vents them with." Maria adds.

Bruce who has his own anger issues feels the need to interject. "Look at this from Steve's perspective. He has been fighting for control his whole life. All of the history books say that before the serum he was the very definition of the sickly type. Then after the serum he ends up as a propaganda puppet. Then after that, he is in a war where the very idea of control is thrown out the window. Only to get frozen in ice, wake up 70 years later. Just to find out that you don't fit in anywhere. Taking all that into consideration, it would seem that losing control would be the easy thing to do."

Tony quickly agrees with Bruce's evaluation. "See, Banner gets it. He should know: he's the world's leading expert on getting angry."

Clint, finishing the last of his apple juice, speaks up next. "You guys don't get it. Steve worked for S.H.I.E.L.D.. They teach you all sorts of ways to deal with the stress that comes from being an agent."

Both Natasha and Maria nod in agreement with Clint.

Bruce on the other hand is shaking his head in defeat. "Really none of you get it? He's afraid. He's afraid that if he loses control he won't be able to get it back. Then it would just be one more thing that has slipped away from him. Also, I can't stress this enough, you do not want to see an out of control Captain America. I studied the serum, believe me when I say that."

Everyone at the table goes silent with Bruce's diagnosis of Steve.

Tony, who looks like someone just broke his favorite toy, finally breaks the silence. "Poor Cap. I never really thought of it that way. Well, I can at least fix a part of the problem."

Pepper looks at the Inventor with apprehension. "And what might that be?"

"Simple Pep. I'm going to get Spangles a girlfriend, or at least a casual fling. That should take some of the edge off. Maybe it would even make him more tolerable to be around." The billionaire declares with a grin.

"That's a great idea Stark!" Clint excitedly agrees.

"You know Cap had all sorts of female admirers while he worked for S.H.I.E.L.D. It shouldn't be that hard to find him a girlfriend." The archer carried on.

Natasha eyes Clint dubiously. "I didn't know you cared so much about Steve's love life Barton."

Shaking his head in frustration Clint continues. "It's not that. Look, I like Steve. I even respect him. But he's not wired like us Nat. If he doesn't have a place to go home to... Well, then frankly he should have someone to go home too."

"That makes two. Come on. How about it Bruce?" Tony elatedly asks the doctor.

Bruce shakes his head in disagreement. "No. While I think it's a good idea, I want no part in it."

Clint agrees with Bruce. "Same here, Stark. I said I'm for it. I never said I would help. Count me out as well."

Tony looks towards Natasha and Maria before sighing in defeat. "Fine, then I'll do this myself."

Natasha doesn't like where this is going, so she decides to warn Steve first chance she gets. She shudders at the thought of the kind of women Tony would parade in front of Steve. "Take my advice Stark, it's a dead-end. I tried setting him up on multiple dates while we were partnered at S.H.I.E.L.D. Not once did he ever ask out anyone I suggested him."

Tony is not dissuaded. "No worries there Widow, I've got a plan."

Pepper, who has to leave for meetings, gets up from the table before addressing the others. "Well, I need to go and do some work so we can keep the lights on. Someone please call me if I need to come and identify Tony's body."

This draws a laugh from everyone at the table except for the billionaire, who feigns indignation.

* * *

It had been a long night for Steve. He and J.A.R.V.I.S. had been working until past midnight, as the two of them had started their investigation into Halo International. All that they'd manage to turn up last night was the information that is all publicly available. Turns out that Halo International specializes in humanitarian endeavors. You name it and Halo International does it. According to what Steve had read, not only were they a publicly traded company, but they took the job very seriously.

On the surface it would appear that Halo International was a committed company. Not only do they provide disaster relief, foreign aid, and everything that goes along with it, they also do infrastructure.

They have their own people to put on the ground for any humanitarian situation. They are usually the first ones in, and the last ones out. Steve had to admit it was impressive. The CEO of the company was a man by the name of Daniel Cardoza. J.A.R.V.I.S. had provided Steve with the information that could be obtained legally. Daniel Cardoza was 35 and unmarried, he went to Columbia University, and he graduated in the top five of his class. On paper Mr. Cardoza was very impressive. J.A.R.V.I.S. had even managed to find a video of Mr. Cardoza speaking at a press conference. Steve had to admit the man knew how to play a crowd; he may even be as good at it as Tony is.

"Captain Rogers, I have found something interesting." The A.I. announces.

Looking up from his laptop, Steve is curious. "What is it J.A.R.V.I.S.?"

"As we knew Halo International is a publicly traded company. What is strange though is that there are no shares being traded."

Steve fails to understand the significance of the revelation. "So all of their shares have been bought up. I don't understand what is so strange about that?"

The A.I. attempts to make the soldier understand. "That is strange sir. There should be some activity regarding the company's shares. Instead, there is nothing. There are not even any recorded activities from the company's IPO 25 years ago."

Steve nods, understanding what J.A.R.V.I.S. is telling him. "So we have a publicly traded company that has never been traded. Howard had a notation about Halo International's revenue stream. Do you think this is what he was talking about?"

"Without a doubt sir, but there is more I'm afraid."

"Alright I'm listening J.A.R.V.I.S.."

The A.I. continues to report its findings. "Not only is there no record of any trades what so ever. The stock has an unusually high dividend payout. Sir it's $10.00 per share paid out once a month."

This gets Steve's attention. "Isn't that high?"

"Indeed it is sir."

"Okay so we know how they make their money. Who are these payments being made to?" Steve inquires.

"I'm afraid I don't possess that information at present Captain Rogers."

Steve is silent as he checks the notes on the files that Howard had left behind before he continues. "Okay J.A.R.V.I.S. I'm pretty sure I see what happened here. S.H.I.E.L.D. entered into a partnership with Halo International so they could use them in cleaning up in areas they were needed. Making them S.H.I.E.L.D.'s go-to company for these matters. Howard wanting to know who the agency is doing business with, began looking into them. Only to uncover what we did. What I don't understand is how Howard found bad financials, and connected them to HYDRA. I wish I knew where those payments were going."

The A.I. offers the soldier a solution. "There is only one way to do that Captain. One would need to break into one of Halo's storage facilities and steal the information."

Steve thinks over the information J.A.R.V.I.S. just gave him. "Alright, then tell me what I need to do."

"Captain Rogers, you're not serious, are you?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" Steve is slightly put off by the A.I.'s question.

"Well for starters sir, it's illegal. Secondly, we have no proof sir. We know that the late Mr. Stark connected this company to HYDRA. At present however, we've failed to do so. Lastly sir, and please forgive me for this. But you are not known for your ability to sneak around. If this were Mr. Barton or Miss Romanoff I wouldn't have this concern sir." J.A.R.V.I.S. tries to reason with the soldier.

"Well J.A.R.V.I.S., it turns out I have a way to get in without being seen. My main concern is how do I get the information once I get inside. I have a feeling that breaking into a computer system is outside of my skill set." Steve reasons.

J.A.R.V.I.S. however is prepared for this. "Well sir, Mr. Stark has a number of programs that can get the job done. I will find one and make the appropriate modifications to it."

Steve is thinking about everything he will need for the mission. "Alright. J.A.R.V.I.S. if I'm going to do this I only have a 20 minute window. We are also going to need a way to stay in contact. Is there a way we can stay in contact without the rest of the team knowing?" There is concern in Steve's voice. He feels it's still too early to bring the rest of the team into this. Although the thought of having Clint and Natasha along for this mission would make it considerably easier. The problem is if he starts bringing in members of the team then it's only a matter of time before Tony finds out. Steve owed it to Howard to try and keep Tony out of this. Truth is, Steve felt he owed it to Tony as well. Steve can't help but think that if he had been here, instead of frozen in the ice, then maybe Tony would still have a family.

J.A.R.V.I.S. brings Steve back to reality by answering his question. "Yes Captain Rogers I can arrange that. It will take some time to have the equipment worked up. I will make the arrangements, and then have the items sent to your personal mailbox. I'm also going to need to set aside some server space to go through the information you will be bringing back."

"Wait! If you do that, won't the others see what we're doing? Why can't we just use the laptop that I bought?" Steve asks alarmed.

"No sir, they will not. I will repurpose one of the research floor servers. The research floor has nothing to do with the Avengers. Plus, there are a number of servers not actually in use. Due to a restructuring process after the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Mr. Stark was concerned about possible HYDRA agents making use of Stark Industries resources. I can then make the server private so that it will not show up on any of the networks. So unless someone goes searching for it specifically, they will be unable to find it. As far as your last question sir; the machine that you insist to work with is not capable of running Mr. Starks decryption program. So if we want to sort through the data, I will need this server's space." J.A.R.V.I.S. explains to Steve in the simplest way possible.

Steve taking notes of what J.A.R.V.I.S. just explained to him. "Okay J.A.R.V.I.S.. How long will it take to have all of this ready?"

"I'm already working on it sir. I will need to put out some work orders for the physical equipment, and its subsequent delivery. I estimate everything will take approximately six hours sir."

Steve takes a final look at his notes before responding to the A.I.'s claim. "Good. I will need to do some prep work. However, before that we need a plan. I need everything you can get me about this off-site storage facility, please."

The A.I., knowing the soldier, was prepared for this. "I'm sending it to the machine in front of you right now, sir."

With that Steve and J.A.R.V.I.S. began planning the break-in to the Halo facility.

* * *

Enjoying the peace of the now quiet conference room, Clint and Natasha sat at the conference table in comfortable silence. Today's briefing had gone very smoothly. As it had become normal lately, nothing required the Avengers' attention. It was beginning to bother the former S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. From Clint's experience when things are this quiet, it means something big is coming. Ever since the fridge had fallen Maria and Tony were searching for the scepter Loki used.

Clint wasn't too keen on the thought of dealing with that scepter again. He liked the thought of HYDRA possessing it even less. There is clearly trouble brewing, and their team leader was nowhere to be found.

"I hope Cap gets his affairs in order soon. We're going to need his head in the game when something finally does happen" Clint posits out.

"I worked with him for almost two years at S.H.I.E.L.D.. Trust me, his head is always in the game, when it counts." Natasha responds, her eyes never leaving the tablet she is using.

Clint sets his tablet down and looks around the room before continuing. "Look, we all saw Cap last night. The man was here, but he wasn't actually here. While I don't doubt Hill's intel regarding the Winter Soldier, I think this is something else entirely."

Natasha is curious now. "What makes you think that?"

"Simple, really. It was what he said to Stark. The way Cap apologized to him. It had nothing to do with missing the briefing. There was much more to it than that." Clint answers.

"You ever think maybe he's just sick and tired of fighting with Stark?" Natasha asks.

"No way. Steve actually likes the fact that he and Stark fight. Granted, Stark has taken it too far in the past. Despite Stark's claim this morning, there is more to his and Steve's fights." Clint asserts.

This is news to Natasha. Despite the number of conversations they've had, she and Steve tend to avoid talking about work. Unless either one or both of them needed to vent. "Where is this coming from Clint?"

Leaning back in his chair Clint continues. "Think about it Nat. With the exception of the team-building that Steve has been advocating. They don't usually have the same fight twice."

Natasha nods attentively, although she's not entirely sure where Clint is going. "Okay... Is there a point to this?"

Clint sighs exasperated. "Stark is a genius and he's used to working alone. Cap is a natural leader. He's also used to fighting with a team. With me so far?"

Natasha nods, urging the archer to continue.

"Good. Now think back to the battle of New York. Cap knew exactly what needed to be done. He came up with a battle plan on the spot. The man is literally a tactical genius. He does all of this without the use of technology and algorithms. Which is something that Tony can't fathom. Not only does Tony not understand how Cap is able to do this without tech, he also doesn't understand why Cap makes certain decisions." Clint explains.

Realization dawns on Natasha. "So instead of telling Steve that he doesn't understand, he starts a fight forcing Steve to explain himself."

Clint nods. "Exactly. Still, something is going on with Cap."

"Maybe... Maybe not. Either way it's none of our business." Natasha replies.

Clint shakes his head in disbelief. "If this were S.H.I.E.L.D. I would agree. Honestly, I'm worried that Cap has gotten himself into some trouble."

Natasha didn't say it but she silently agreed with Clint, although for some reason she couldn't say why. She just knew that something is off with Steve.

* * *

It had been a long seven hours for Steve. He had left the tower and gotten some food, then made his way to the project rebirth lab so he could finish the manual ahead of tonight's mission. He needed to figure out how to use the new combat suit that Howard had made. Steve was planning to use the chameleon mesh to appear invisible. This would hopefully help him compensate for the fact that he's not very good at being covert. If he's honest with himself, he is nervous about tonight's mission.

Subterfuge and technology were not two things people usually associated with Steve. .V.I.S. assured Steve that he would handle the technology aspect of the break-in. Steve is going to have to trust that the A.I. will come up with something that Steve can handle. The plan that they came up with is simple, really. Tonight under the cover of darkness Steve would break into the storage facility. According to J.A.R.V.I.S. all of Halo International's data is backed-up at this facility which is located outside of New York, which meant that Steve had about a four hour ride ahead of him. Once it was nightfall Steve would incapacitate the security personnel. Once that was done, he would then make his way to the designated server. When he arrived at the server, he was supposed to plug in some device that J.A.R.V.I.S. was having worked up. The A.I. assured him that the device would take care of the rest. Then it was just a matter of getting out of the facility, and back to the tower so that J.A.R.V.I.S. could look at the data.

Steve isn't sure what he's going to do if there is a connection to HYDRA. Truth is, he shouldn't be worried about what ifs right now. He should be focused on the upcoming mission. He also needs to get used to this new combat suit. It has a full face mask and fabric that extends down from the sleeve to encompass the hands, so that Steve's whole body will appear invisible. 'It makes sense', Steve guesses. I would be pointless if everything but his head and hands seemed invisible. It's the time-table that has Steve the most concerned. He can only stay invisible for 20 minutes, which means he has to take out all six guards, being careful not to harm any of them. They may be just innocent men, working what they think is an honest living. According to J.A.R.V.I.S. it could take up to five minutes for the data to transfer.

Steve has set aside a minute to deal with each guard plus another two minutes to get to the server. That takes the total time to 13 minutes, which leaves Steve with a seven minute window to get out and deal with any unforeseen problems. That window is small, but it shouldn't be a problem as long as the information J.A.R.V.I.S. gave him is correct. Steve has no reason to doubt the A.I. Deciding that he needs a break from all of this, he makes his way the living quarters Howard had set up. He makes his way to an oversized chair. He's not sure who decorated this room, but it was cozy. On the wall directly across from where Steve sat were pictures: pictures of him and the commandos, him and Peggy, him and Howard, and one of just him and Bucky.

Steve couldn't help the emotions that suddenly took hold of him. Sadness over the years that he lost, guilt for still being here, and anger that everything they had fought for seemed to be for nothing. Dwelling on those emotions weren't going to help anyone right now. He would make things right starting with Howard's mission. Everything else could wait, he would bury it just like he's been doing since he woke up from the ice.

The little table in the center of the room contained a scrapbook that someone had put together. The scrapbook held newspaper clippings of important events that had happened while Steve was in the ice. He flipped through the book during his last visit here. The wall to his right had a shelf with a record player and a radio on it. All in all, Steve had to admit this room had everything he needed. Well, almost everything. It was missing one ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. agent by the name of Natasha Romanoff. He missed Natasha. They hadn't spoken since their long conversation the night before. Taking out his private phone he dialed Natasha's private phone. It goes straight to voicemail, so Steve leaves a message. "Hey Nat, just wanted to see how everything is going. Well... I guess I'll talk too you a little later. Goodbye."

Steve hangs up the phone. Deciding that the tech J.A.R.V.I.S. was working on should be ready by now, he also needed to speak to Tony before tonight's mission. With these thoughts in mind Steve heads back to the tower.

* * *

Tony was hard at work in the workspace that he shared with Bruce. He was currently working on a new encryption algorithm for a new comm system that he wants to put in place for the Avengers. The inventor had wanted to have the new comm system finished before he approached Steve with the idea. This way if the soldier had any questions about the new tech Tony could simply show him. Steve tended to do better with an actual exhibition of tech instead of trying to explain to him why it works. Although Steve usually deferred to the inventor on matters of new tech, it was well known in the tower that tech and the resident super soldier were like oil and water. Of course, the soldier was perfectly fine with it. Just thinking about Steve's stoicism made Tony's blood boil.

As if on cue the door opened revealing the mentioned soldier. "Spangles, what brings you to my wing of the tower? Of course, they're all really my wings so..." Tony says with a grin.

Steve smiles and holds up a slip of paper. "Actually Stark, I came to see you. I have some questions, and I was hoping maybe you would have some answers."

The inventor immediately drops the tablet he was working on. "Finally. Don't worry Cap, I've got a lot of ideas for a new uniform."

"No. Tony you misunderstand. I'm not here about my uniform." Steve interrupts the billionaire.

Tony frowns at Steve's response. "If this isn't about a new uniform, then what is it about?"

Steve pulls out a slip of paper from his pants pocket. "Well... I've been looking at some companies. I'm thinking about maybe investing some money. Before I do that however, I have a few questions." This was the line that Steve had come up with to approach the inventor. Truth is, Steve was curious. If it turns out that Halo International is cooperating with HYDRA, then he needs to figure out how far up it goes.

The inventor is quiet for a moment before responding to the soldier's request. "Invest? I don't pay you people that kind of money. Wait, do I? Are you making more than me Spangles? If so, then someone is getting fired. I may need to have a word with accounting."

Sighing Steve elaborates. "No. This is some money that I had from before. When I woke up I found out that I was entitled to a lot of money. I thought that perhaps investing it would be a good idea."

Accepting Steve's answer Tony offers his expertise. "Okay Spangles, ask away."

"Well let's say that a person is a CEO of a company. How much would they know about what their company is involved in?" Steve inquires.

The soldier's question catches the inventor by surprise. "Well to be honest, that is a difficult question. It goes like this Capsicle. The role of a CEO varies based on the size of the company in question. However, if a company is large enough to be publicly traded, then that's a specific story. A CEO of such a company will be directly involved. In short, a CEO of a company like that will be involved in making all major corporate decisions."

Steve begins pacing back and forth, digesting what the inventor just explained to him. Still, Steve needs to be sure. "So let's say that I invest with a company. Then it turns out later that the company is found out to be engaged in less than legal activities. What are the chances that the CEO knew or was involved?"

Tony suddenly became dejected as he thought back to what seemed like a lifetime ago. To the time when his own company was engaged in not only unethical, but also illegal activities. Under the direction of Obadiah Stane, a man he had considered family. "Truth is, yes. Yes Spangles, a CEO not only should know but would most likely have been the one to condone it. If the CEO actually manages the company, which is something I didn't do. Then without a doubt they should know. If they don't, it's because they don't want to know. Honestly that's not any better, nor is it an excuse."

Realizing that he has perhaps dredged up bad memories for the inventor, Steve decides to move on. "Okay last question. If company A is doing business with company B and I invest in company A, does that mean I've also invested with company B?"

The billionaire is beyond confused by Steve's line of questioning, but answers anyways. "Absolutely not. What sort of investing are you thinking about doing?"

"I'm haven't decided yet." Steve answers.

Having the answers that he needs, the soldier decides to revisit the topic from earlier. "So what exactly is wrong with my uniform? Howard designed that uniform for me."

A devilish smirk crosses the inventors face. "You make my point for me Spangles. That uniform is an antique, plus it's got all of those sewed up bullet holes. I mean you know that Banner and myself have been designing new gear for Barton and Romanoff?"

Steve is skeptical. "You designed Natasha a new uniform?"

"Hell no! If I did that we would lose the male demographic." The inventor exclaims.

Steve is utterly lost at the billionaire's statement. "The male demographic?"

"Yes the male demographic. I had some focus groups ran to poll opinion on the Avengers. Standard stuff really. Who people find most trusting, who they are most afraid of. That sort of thing. Well it turns out that Romanoff tested off the charts with the male demographic. In short Romanoff tested better than Santa Claus."

Steve is not sure what to make of Tony's declaration. "Better than Santa Claus?"

The inventor is quick to give his acknowledgement. "Yep. Santa Claus. However none of this has anything to do with your new uniform. So how about it Spangles, let me design you a new uniform?"

Steve is hesitant. "I'm not sure Stark."

"Trust me alright." implores the inventor.

Sighing, the soldier finally gives in to the inventors request. "I have a feeling that's going to be my first mistake. But alright, design me a new uniform. I want to see it before I decide rather or not I'm going to use it."

Smiling from ear to ear, Tony is ready to get to work on a new uniform for the towers resident super soldier, all thoughts of the new comm system already forgotten.

"Great, I should have something finished in a few weeks. You won't regret it Cap I promise."

His business here complete, Steve turns to leave. Before he exits, he looks back at the inventor. "Just don't do anything too fancy or crazy."

"I didn't agree to that before, and I refuse to agree to it now." Declares Tony.

"I'm regretting this already." Steve declares as he leaves the workspace.

Tony was ecstatic to finally be able to work on something for the soldier. He understood that this was a big gesture on Steve's part. He also knew how much the soldier was attached to the uniform that his father had designed for him during the war. "J.A.R.V.I.S. open a new project file."

"Right away sir." The A.I. responds.

* * *

Nightfall had finally come. It had been six hours since Steve had been back to the tower to pick up the equipment J.A.R.V.I.S. promised him. Which, as it turns out, wasn't much more than a special USB stick and an ear-bud. Steve then went back and picked up the combat suit from the lab. He still hadn't come up with a better name for the place yet. Then he drove out of New York to the Halo storage facility. It had taken him almost half an hour to find a hidden place to park his bike where he could hide until nightfall, while still scoping the facility out.

Deciding that it was time to change into the combat suit, he took out the items he brought with himself. Once he was changed, he inserted the ear-bud into his ear and called for J.A.R.V.I.S.. "Testing. Testing. J.A.R.V.I.S. are you there?"

There was silence for only a second before the A.I. responded. "Indeed I am sir."

"Good. So what do I do with this USB stick? Also, can the team hear us?" Steve's voice is saturated with concern.

"Well sir, all you need to do with the USB stick is simply insert it into the port on the proper server. The server in question is labeled ZGMFX10A. As far as the second question goes; no sir, they can't hear us. I had the techs install a custom firmware on this ear-bud. It uses the same satellites as the Avengers comm frequency, but runs on an entirely different frequency than the teams. And might I add Captain Rogers, I'm offended that you even had to ask such a question."

"I'm sorry J.A.R.V.I.S.. Mind if I ask how you pulled this off?"

The A.I. is all too eager to respond to the soldier's request. "Well, simple really. Since I have access to all portions of the tower. I simply made the necessary alterations to the firmware for both the USB stick and the ear-bud. Then I put in the work orders so the techs would load up the equipment with my custom software, with a notation to have it sent to you sir."

Steve is aghast at how easily J.A.R.V.I.S. was able to pull this off. "J.A.R.V.I.S. I'm glad you're on our side."

"Thank you sir. So has there been any movement from the guards, sir?"

Pulling a mask over his face, Steve responds. "No. Not a thing and I've been here for thirty minutes. But I can't wait around here all night. So I'm going to go on in and get the data."

"Very well sir. However please do be careful. I don't need to remind you of Miss Romanoff's volatile nature."

Steve laughs at the A.I.'s apprehension. "Don't worry J.A.R.V.I.S. we'll blame the whole thing on Tony."

"Miss Romanoff is correct sir, you're picking up her bad habits." The A.I. responds.

Steve nods at that, then switches the dial on his belt. In less than a second Steve became invisible to the naked eye. Once he was, camouflaged he made a run from his hiding spot to the entrance of the storage facility.

As he arrived, Steve found that the entrance was open. The hair on the back of the soldier's neck was standing up. This was entirely too easy as Steve had expected to be forced to break the lock to get in. He certainly didn't expect to find the entrance already open. Making his way inside, any doubt he had about this being wrong quickly evaporated. There, laying on the floor were all six security guards. All of them were obviously dead because the floor was covered in blood. "J.A.R.V.I.S. we've got bodies. All six of the guards are dead."

"Sir perhaps you should consider getting out." Informs the A.I.

"No these men have been dead for a little while. Besides, if I leave now I might not be able to get back in. This place will become a crime scene. Whoever did this was a pro. These are all knife wounds. Chances are, whoever did this is long gone."

The A.I. protests. "I'm afraid I must protest sir."

"Noted" Replies Steve.

Moving on carefully to avoid the blood on the floor, Steve makes his way through the various rows of servers. Rounding a corner he saw the server that he needed so he walks over to the server. The ambient hum of all of the servers had Steve on edge as they provide a perfect way for someone to hide their footsteps. 'Easy Rogers you're invisible at the moment. At least until you pull out this USB stick.' he thinks to himself in a way of reassurance. Removing the stick from his belt Steve inserts it into the port on the server. "Okay J.A.R.V.I.S. it's in."

"Very good sir. Now just wait for the light on the stick to change from orange to blue. Once that happens it means the data transfer is finished. You may then remove the stick and leave." The A.I. instructed.

Steve's reply is short. "Understood."

The light finally changes. Not wanting to stay a second longer than necessary Steve removes the USB stick, and then quickly makes his way back to the spot he was hiding at earlier so that he can change, get his bike and head back to New York. Once he got back to the tower he would begin to have J.A.R.V.I.S. analyze the data. Making his way back to his hiding spot, which was nothing more than a old condemned warehouse, he turned off the camouflage and quickly changed back into his regular clothes. Packing everything away on his bike, Steve left the warehouse beginning his long ride back to New York.

Using the cover of night a lone figure eyed the warehouse. He had been watching it for the last hour ever since he had noticed the motorcycle make its way down the desolate roadway. Now as he watched he could see the bike and rider leave the same warehouse it had entered. He had been ordered to stick around to see who showed up to respond to the little incident at the storage facility. He had never expected to see Captain America show up. And from all appearances had done absolutely nothing about the situation inside, which ran contrary to everything he knew about Captain America. Thinking this situation doesn't make sense, the figure pulls out a phone and dials in a number. "Director Fury you'll never guess who just left the Halo site."


	4. Chapter 4

First of all I would like to thank everyone for the reviews and the favorites. I would also like to thank everyone for the numerous pm's regarding this story. As far as some of those pm's go I will take a moment to address a few of them real quick. I'm not a professional writer as such this story will have mistakes, I apologize for them. Secondly, I know that the story has been light on the action. Don't worry that will begin to change soon. Lastly I have no set update schedule, between work and family commitments I update when i can. All I can promise is to update when I can.

As far as the next chapter goes it maybe a little while as I have to start it over from scratch, my last computer died on me and it took the next few chapters with it.

Now onto what everyone is actually here for here is chapter 4. Oh and I don't now nor will I ever own Avengers

* * *

The team were just finishing up the morning briefing. A briefing that Steve had missed yet again, thanks to his activities the night before. It had been nearly 3 a.m. when Steve had arrived back at the tower. Once he had uploaded the data for J.A.R.V.I.S. he had taken a quick shower, then gone to bed leaving J.A.R.V.I.S. to begin an analysis of the data. The events of the past 48 hours had left Steve exhausted. As such he had over slept which was unheard of for the super soldier. Now he was rushing into the conference room. Only to learn that he had missed the entire briefing.

Tony is the first to point out Steve's tardiness "Whoa nice of you to make it Capsicle. You managed to miss the entire briefing."

Nodding in understanding the soldier offers up an apology. "I'm sorry I overslept. I've been busy the last couple of days."

"Yet all the rest of us managed to be here. I'm sure Thor would be here as well if he were at the tower." The inventor admonished.

"I'm sorry. But I did warn you the other night that I would be missing more of these until I got all of my business handled. However I didn't intend to miss this one. So again I apologize to all of you." Steve finishes when suddenly the tablets in front of Maria begin beeping.

All eyes in the room turn toward the former agent. As she begins going through the tablets with a methodical precision. Born from years of experience at S.H.I.E.L.D.. Sighing Maria looks at Steve. "There has been a break-in at a data storage center 180 miles outside of New York. Six security guards were murdered in the process."

Impatient Clint interrupts. "Okay while that's bad. Why are we discussing it? This seems like a local law enforcement problem."

If Maria was frustrated by the archer's interruption she didn't show it. "I was getting to that." Never taking her eyes off of Steve, Maria continued. "Reports are saying that the assailant was a man with a metal left arm."

Steve was floored by Maria's declaration. "Bucky? Maria how accurate are the reports?"

"Accurate enough that I'm sharing the information with you. The murder of the guards was caught on a camera. The Winter Soldier even took out the camera." The room is silent as Maria recites the report back to Steve.

Suspecting that he knew the answer, but needing to confirm his suspicions. "Maria who did the storage facility belong too?"

Maria already had an answer to the captains question. "It's owned by Halo International. They're a..."

"They're a company that specializes in humanitarian endeavors. The company is ran by a Mr. Daniel Cardoza, and they have a long standing relationship with S.H.I.E.L.D.." Steve finished for the former agent.

Suddenly Steve is very concerned, the fact that Bucky is being accused of killing those guards is a problem. The mere fact that Bucky was there at all tells Steve that he and J.A.R.V.I.S. are most likely on the right trail. What the soldier is finding the most troubling is the fact that he didn't see a single camera. While he may have appeared invisible while he was in Howard's combat suit, the usb stick he used on the server was most certainly not.

What Steve should've been worried about was Maria's next question. "That's right. But how did you know that? That was classified information only those at the top knew about the companies that S.H.I.E.L.D. worked with."

Realizing his mistake too late Steve looked for a way to fix his error. Now wasn't the time to let the team in on his investigation. Especially now that Bucky was involved somehow as well. So he did something that he rarely did, he lied. "I read about it in the S.H.I.E.L.D. data-dump." Hoping that he wasn't pressed on the matter further. "If you all will excuse me I have things I need to do. Maria would you mind sending me the info about the crime scene please?"

"It's already done Cap."

"Thank you Maria." Steve then left the conference room without another word.

"Okay I think we should be concerned." Bruce calmly declared. Bruce always seemed calm on the outside. In fact just looking at the scientist you would never know that he housed one of the most powerful beings in existence. "I mean he already seems like he's taken a punch to the gut. This seems like a situation that he doesn't need to deal with right now."

"Not only is the Winter Soldier dangerous, but now he has shown up practically in our back yard. That's not even taking into account the six dead bodies. I don't like it. Hill do you mind if I take a look at the report?" Clint is apprehensive his instincts are telling him this is wrong.

Tony looks toward Clint not being experienced in these sorts of matters he has no clue as too what the archer is thinking. "What are you thinking Barton?"

Natasha is the one that responds. "He's thinking that it doesn't add up." Natasha had to agree with Clint this didn't make sense. The first rule of infiltration is don't be seen. Not to mention that the Winter Soldier was a ghost a master of his craft. This... well this reeked of amateur hour, something that she never would've associated with the Winter Soldier. The sad part is none of that concerned her at the moment. What concerned her at the moment was the fact that she had just watched Steve lie to the team. He had lied rather convincingly to boot, the others didn't see it or if they did they probably chalked it up to the news about the Winter Soldier. Natasha made a mental note to pay better attention to which of her bad habits Steve was allowed to pick up on. "You don't by chance have access to the video footage do you?"

"I do." Hill was quick to reply.

Natasha was pleased. "Play it."

"Oh a movie J send up some popcorn." Tony interjected.

This earned the inventor glares from everyone else in the room. "What no popcorn? J cancel the popcorn." The inventor sighs in defeat.

In short order the video footage was playing from a projector built into the conference table. All six guards were gathered around the security station. They were watching something on a small TV. Then in the blink of an eye it happened. Barnes appeared on the screen. He took out the two guards who were outside of the security station. Barnes sliced both of their throats before they even had a chance to reach for their side-arms. The four remaining guards had looks of shock on their faces. Barnes used that shock to his advantage. He used his metallic arm to pull the guard closest to him over the security station and out onto the floor with him. Using the same knife he had on the first two guards Barnes made short work of the third guard by slicing his throat as well. The three remaining guards then made the mistake of attempting to engage Barnes. The guards attempted to surround Barnes the one to his left drew his side-arm. That was a mistake, Barnes was on him before he could take aim with his gun. Barnes grabbed him and threw him into the other two guards.

Barnes was across the room in what seemed like a flash. One of the guards was attempting to get up, he became Barnes first target. The man was on one knee trying to get his gun from it's holster. Barnes took his right leg and smashes the mans shin, the man drops his gun and is on the floor, the agony clear on the guards face. With the fourth guard no longer a threat for the time being Barnes then turns his attention to the two guards who are scrambling to pick themselves up. He then stalks over to them, the Avengers watch as Barnes takes a handful of hair and uses it to pick one of the men up and then without hesitation slits his throat. Without wasting a single motion he does the exact same thing to the sixth and final guard. Now the only guard left is the one who's shin Barnes smashed. The man is trying to get away, the high quality of the video clearly displaying the sheer pain that the guard was in. Barnes stalks up to him like a lion stalking a gazelle, he then knelt down in front of the wounded guard, grabbed a handful of hair and just like his co-workers before him Barnes slit his throat.

Walking over to where the man had dropped his gun he picked it up and aimed it directly at the camera in the wall and fired. It was there that the video ended.

"That's not good." Both Natasha and Clint exclaimed at the same time.

"I'd say so he killed those men without so much as a hint of remorse on his face." Bruce is quick to offer. Not even attempting to hide the revulsion in his voice at what they had all just witnessed.

Clint is quick to correct the scientist. "While that's bad it's gets worse. Barnes knew the whole time that the camera was there."

"He wanted to be seen killing those men. More than that he wanted to be seen period." Maria supplied.

It's Natasha's observation however that's the most unsettling. "He's wanting to get someone's attention."

"Spangles?" Tony suggests.

Maria is the first to offer up an exclamation. "It would make sense Steve searched for him for nearly seven months. I've no doubt that he made a lot of noise while doing so. Subtlety is not often a word one uses to describe Captain America. Barnes has to know that Steve was looking for him, in his line of work you had to know when someone was looking for you. Other wise there's a good chance that you'll end up dead."

"Does anyone know how close Steve got to finding the Winter Soldier? It seems odd that he spent all that time searching, and turned up absolutely nothing concrete." Bruce is inquisitive. He comes by it naturally as a scientist. That and Steve hasn't been very forthcoming with details about his search for Barnes after S.H.I.E.L.D. fell. The scientist understands the captain comes from a time when people truly valued their privacy. Bruce could relate to that given the unpredictable nature of the other guy that resided inside of him.

With scientists question all eyes turned toward Natasha. "Well red you and Spangles arrived here together. You said he helped you out of a jam. At any point while playing the hero did Spangles mention how his search for the one armed man was going?" Tony didn't do much to hide the sarcasm in his voice.

Natasha didn't like sharing tidbits of conversations that she and Steve had together. She also knew that the others wanted answers. Truth is she would like some answers herself. Too many things are happening for them to be a coincidence. First there was Steve's odd behavior that coincided with his business matters that miraculously seemed to appear out of thin air. Then there was Hill's intel about the Winter Soldier being in the area. Now there are six dead men courtesy of the Winter Soldier. Natasha can practically hear Fury's voice in her head going on about the shit-storm that was coming their way. "No all he ever said about the Winter Soldier is that he doesn't want to be found."

This earns a sneer from the inventor. "Well I'd say he wants to be found now."

Deciding that they were in real danger of going off topic Maria decides to table the discussion. "I'll follow the investigation for now, and see where it goes."

Everyone seemed fine with Maria's declaration, but it was Bruce that voiced the question that was on everyone's mind. "What about Steve? Should we keep him in the loop? I mean if Barnes is here for Steve than I think he has a right to know."

"I don't disagree. However I'm fairly certain that the Captain will follow the investigation closely. On the other point we don't know what game Barnes is playing at the moment. So I'd advise against any rush to action." Hill is quick to offer up her assessment.

The other members of the team all nodded their agreement.

* * *

Steve was back in his quarters, to say that things had taken an unexpected turn would be an understatement at this point. He couldn't have been more than a couple of hours behind Bucky last night. The worse part is that he didn't even know it, when he had encountered the dead guards last night the thought that Bucky had done it had never crossed his mind. _Why? Why now Bucky?_ All this time all of these months spent searching and nothing his old friend had been silent, a ghost in every sense of the word. Now all of the sudden out of the blue he shows up and kills six people, and was apparently caught on security footage doing so. At a data storage facility that maybe connected to HYDRA no less. There was definitely more going on here than he had originally suspected. Also why was Bucky choosing now to make a reappearance? Something has changed something big and important, Steve knew he had missed it, every since he had come back to New York with Natasha he had devoted less time to finding the man that had been a brother to him. He'd made his peace with the fact that Bucky hadn't wanted to be found. But why, why did he have to choose now to show back up? Why did he have to show up at the same facility that Steve was investigating? Steve needed to prioritize as much as he hated to do this it needed to be done. He had the mission that Howard had given him the same mission that had cost Howard and Maria Stark their lives, and Tony his family. A course of action decided the soldier figured it was time to get to work. "J.A.R.V.I.S.."

"Yes Captain Rogers."

Steve is always amazed at how quickly the A.I. was to respond when called. "Have you finished decrypting the data yet?"

"Yes sir I have."

He's pleased to hear that the A.I. had decrypted the data, but not surprised. "Good work. Is there anything that pops out as a connection to HYDRA?"

J.A.R.V.I.S. had a reply ready. "Yes sir. It would seem that a number of the shareholders of Halo International were known HYDRA agents. Including the late Secretary Pierce."

Steve's whole body stiffens at the mention of Secretary Pierce. That is definitely a HYDRA connection, the problem though is that it's not a crime to own stock in a company. But why this company? There is something here that he's not seeing, it's simple for him to associate Pierce with HYDRA now. If he didn't already know that the former Secretary was HYDRA, then he wouldn't think twice about a company that the man had invested in. Then it hit him like a ton of bricks, he was going about this all wrong. "J.A.R.V.I.S. we need to go farther back."

"I beg your pardon sir."

"We're looking at shareholders. We need to look before, before the company went public. Is there any information on that?" Steve's voice suddenly carried an urgent timbre to it.

The A.I. not sure what the soldier was thinking, but intent to comply anyway. "One moment sir. I will attempt to retrieve that information." The room was quiet while J.A.R.V.I.S. worked. "Alright I have retrieved the data Captain."

"Good. When was the company founded, or more precisely when did their doors open for business?" Steve was asking this, while mentally kicking himself. The company according to the information that J.A.R.V.I.S. had supplied him with stated that the companies IPO was 25 years ago. Remembering what he had read in Howard's notes that would've been a couple of years before they officially partnered up with S.H.I.E.L.D..

"Sir I have the information you requested. The company was founded on April 12th, 1961. However they didn't officially open their doors so to speak until May 4th, 1962." The A.I. still unsure of what exactly it was Steve was hoping to accomplish with this line of questioning.

Finally some breadcrumbs, deciding to add another piece to the puzzle. Steve asks his next question. "Alright J.A.R.V.I.S. I have more questions, but I'm pretty sure I know what we're looking for now. Are there any records about who the people were that founded the company?"

Trusting that the soldier knew where all of this was going the A.I. offered up a short response. "Yes sir I do have that information ."

Relieved Steve continues. "Good I wasn't sure exactly what information we were able to get onto the drive. Okay now I need you to take those names and cross-reference them with known HYDRA agents both living and dead. Check it between both the Avengers database and the S.H.I.E.L.D. data dump file please."

"I'm impressed that you knew I was capable of performing those actions Captain Rogers." The A.I. was quick to tease the soldier.

Smiling at the jest the soldier felt the need to explain himself. "Well I read that, and Natasha has taught me a few things."

"I see. Well it would seem that I have identified no less than 12 known HYDRA agents that were a part of founding the company. Unfortunately we can't question any of them, they're all now deceased I'm afraid."

Steve didn't like that last little tidbit at all. Still he was determined that he was on the right track. "Okay J.A.R.V.I.S.. Did any of them have ties to S.H.I.E.L.D.? I don't care how insignificant the connection appears."

Finally understanding where Steve was going with this the A.I. was much quicker to respond. "Only one sir. The late Secretary Pierce."

That got Steve's attention. "You mean to tell me that Pierce was one of the founding members of Halo International?" Well that wasn't the connection he had expected to find, but it's still a connection.

"Yes sir he was."

Now he is sure he sees how it all fit together. There is just one more piece to the puzzle. Howard was most likely curious as to how someone that worked for S.H.I.E.L.D. had been able to help found a company. Especially decades before he had ascended to the upper echelons of the organization. Only then for the company that he help create get into business with S.H.I.E.L.D.. Steve thinks that Howard most likely stumbled upon the fact that Pierce was funneling money for his own purposes. That this is the thread that Howard had pulled on that had led him to HYDRA. Steve is sure of it. "J.A.R.V.I.S. are there any records of other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents working with Halo?"

"Yes sir there is only one. An agent listed only by their S.H.I.E.L.D. ID number. The ID is SCI-8247-A5."

The answer that the A.I. provided left Steve puzzled. "J.A.R.V.I.S. is there a name attached to that ID number?"

"Not in these files I'm afraid sir."

It wasn't the answer that the soldier had wanted, but he was undeterred. "Okay J.A.R.V.I.S. since we know that it's a S.H.I.E.L.D. ID number. Is there any chance that the agent maybe listed in either the Avengers database or the data dump file?"

As always the A.I. had a response at the ready. "Yes sir the data dump file contained a list of all S.H.I.E.L.D. agents both past, and present sir. I can retrieve the relevant information from the file sir. It will take me about an hour to do so sir, if I am not to arouse suspicion."

Once again Steve finds himself puzzled. "That's fine. But why will it take so long?"

"Well sir the agent file is one that is accessed daily by Miss Hill. If I go in and begin a search while she is actively viewing the file it may alert her to my inquiry."

J.A.R.V.I.S. explanation drew Steve's attention. "Hill accesses the agent list daily?" Steve asks doing nothing to mask the worry in his voice.

Failing to understand why the soldier is suddenly worried. The A.I. answers the soldiers question. "Yes sir. Is that a problem?"

Not entirely sure why the news bothered him so much he decided to drop the issue for now. "I honestly don't know J.A.R.V.I.S.. I'm going to go and get some fresh air I'll be back a little later. If you don't mind please find me the name that goes with that ID number and send it to my laptop."

Always happy to comply the A.I. begin the task assigned by the soldier. "Of course Captain Rogers. Oh and has anyone ever mentioned sir that you're a terrible liar?"

Laughing at the teasing remark Steve had a reply ready. He had become better at verbally sparring with others in large part because of all the time he spent with Natasha. "No J.A.R.V.I.S. I've never heard that before." With that Steve grabbed his jacket and was out the door without another word spoken between the two unlikely partners.

* * *

Nick Fury was looking out of the window of what was passing as a office, in what was at best a temporary base. He was going over what he had just learned, and honestly he was having trouble making sense of it. "You're certain that Rogers never entered the facility?"

"I am."

Fury turned to look at the agent that was standing on the other side of his makeshift desk. "It doesn't make any sense what so ever. I don't like this, I'm expected to believe that Captain Rogers just happens to show up at the same location that you were raiding? I don't believe in coincidences not in this line of work, and most certainly not when it comes to Steve Rogers. There are only a few reasons that he would've been at that location, and none of them work in our favor."

"I could point him in another direction. If I do that however you'll need to pull me off of this assignment." The agent attempts to offer up a solution to the problem at hand.

Fury took stock of the agent in front of him, one James Buchanan Barnes a.k.a. the Winter Soldier. Fury would be lying to himself if he had said he'd had no reservations when he first came across Barnes nearly five months ago. Fury had been in Kosovo tracking down a HYDRA cell, when he'd finally managed to locate the cell, the HYDRA agents were all already dead. Amongst all of the dead bodies and broken computers sit Barnes, he was nothing short of broken. He had looked up at Fury and asked him a question, it had been the last thing that Fury had expected from the assassin. "Can you fix me?"

Fury had taken Barnes back with him to what had become the new S.H.I.E.L.D.. Barnes had spent the first month in isolation talking to doctors as they helped him come to terms with everything that had happened. Then slowly they had eased him into talking to people, other agents who weren't doctors. Then Fury started using him in the fight against HYDRA, at first it had just been intel, things that Barnes could remember. Then a month ago Fury had put Barnes back in the field, his hand had been forced by necessity, but he couldn't argue with the results. As an asset Barnes was on a different level than either Barton or Romanoff, and unlike Rogers, Barnes never questioned his orders. Deciding he had spent enough time with his thoughts. Fury got back onto the problem in front of them. "You said that Rogers was alone?"

Barnes nodded. "I did, and he was."

Fury knew what that meant. "He hasn't told the other Avengers what he's up to."

"That's a reasonable assessment. I noticed that the red head wasn't even with him. Which I find surprising considering all the time they've been spending together." Barnes does nothing to hide the distaste in his voice at the mention of the Black Widow.

Fury found it slightly amusing the distaste that Barnes held for Romanoff. Not that Fury can blame him all these weeks later and he's still having a hard time wrapping his head around the fact that Steve Rogers, and Natasha Romanoff are in fact an item. Fact is Fury isn't surprised that Rogers fell for Romanoff, but he'd be lying if he said he wasn't surprised by the fact that Romanoff felt the same way. "You don't think that Rogers knows what's going on with the remnants of the Daedalus project do you?"

Barnes was quick and sure with his reply. "No. If he knew we would be having a very different conversation right now."

Fury hated second guessing himself, but when it came to Steve Rogers Fury made it a point never to assume anything. The good captain has proven that he's not nearly as clueless as most people believe him to be. "Then for now we'll proceed as planned. We need to recover the Daedalus project no matter what. In the mean time I want you to work on a contingency plan just in case Captain Rogers gets too close."

Nodding his agreement Barnes still had one concern that he felt needed to be voiced. "I will get to work on that. However the video footage of me is sure to find its way to Steve, which means he may start looking for me full-time again. That video was for HYDRA's benefit not Steve's, and I have no way to dissuade him from seeking me out. Should he choose to do so, that's provided he's not too busy playing house with that jezebel of his."

Once again Fury finds himself slightly amused. He also makes a mental note to get Romanoff and Barnes in the same room together just to see what happens. "Don't worry I'll take care of it I've got someone I can call. There's one more thing. How did Coulson's girl perform last night?"

"Skye proved to be up to the task, she was in and out of their system in less than 10 minutes which was impressive given their firewall. Deputy Director Coulson was right to recommend her for that op." Barnes offered up a quick and precise assessment.

If Fury was pleased he didn't show it, instead he brought the debriefing to an end. "Good we have the meeting with our man from Samson Biotech in four days. You're free until then. Dismissed."

Barnes gave a quick nod and without making a sound left the room.

With Barnes out of the room Fury set down at the desk picked up the phone and dialed a private number. "Hill it's me I have some information about the Winter Soldier that you may want to pass along to Captain Rogers."

* * *

Steve found himself standing on the balcony of the tower over looking New York. He was glad that he'd brought his jacket because it was cool this high up, the time of year didn't help matters any. Since waking up from the ice Steve had grown to hate the cold. Not that he had ever been a big fan of the cold anyways between living through the Great Depression, and the winter months during the war he'd had enough cold to last him a lifetime it seemed. Still he had to admit it was nice and peaceful up here, he had to make a point to come up here and sketch. So caught up in the planning of his next sketching session, the soldier was completely caught off guard when Thor suddenly landed on the balcony not too far from him. "I apologize Steve I didn't mean to startle you."

Composing himself Steve felt the need to assuage the Asgardian's fear. "It's fine Thor I just wasn't expecting you back until next week. That and I'm still not used to people just falling from the sky." The last part was said with a smile.

"Aye Jane's business in Tokyo was supposed to last through the week. Unfortunately Jane's colleague Darcy caused a bit of an incident. Which is unfortunate as Jane promised to show me Mt. Fuji." Thor is unable to hide the disappointment in his voice.

That got Steve's attention he had never meet Dr. Foster or her colleague Darcy, but Thor had been more than happy to tell him all about them. "What happened?"

Holding his hand up to silence his captain. "I'm afraid I can't say. in order to avoid criminal charges we had to sign papers. I'm afraid I can so no more on the matter Steve."

Laughing despite the situation Steve understood. "Sure I understand. Although if I were you I wouldn't say anything to Stark you know how he can be."

Thor's face went white at the realization of what the inventor might do should he find out about the incident in Tokyo. "Agreed Captain. Still I was looking forward to the sights that Jane had planned to show me."

He could understand where the Prince was coming from. "She has helped you out a lot since you first arrived here hasn't she."

"Indeed she has my friend more than anyone will ever know. But you understand that don't you Captain?" Thor was now leaning on the railing of the balcony overlooking New York same has Steve.

Steve is slightly taken back by Thor's declaration. "I understand?"

Thor takes a moment before elaborating afraid he had misspoke. "Yes. While you were born here, we are both outsiders. We are two men who are out of place. There are many things about this world that vex me, but Jane has been a guiding hand in helping me understand."

Understanding finally dawned on Steve as he realized that Thor was right. "I try not to think about it too much, other times though it hits me like a ton of bricks."

"Is that why you stay behind when we go on team outings? I see the way you do when Barton or Stark make a jest that you do not understand. Anytime when there is a reference made to the pop culture. You pretend to get it and laugh or nod in agreement."

Steve sighed at the Asgardian's questioning. "Yeah I mean most of the jokes Stark or Barton make I just don't get. It's not just them I have trouble like that with pretty much everyone. I... Well I just don't know to be honest."

Grateful for the trust that his captain was giving him Thor vowed to not take it for granted. It was well known at the tower that Steve Rogers was a very private person he didn't just open up like this. Thor felt truly honored that Steve was confiding in him. "I understand better than you may think my friend."

Steve looked at the Prince and knew instantly that Thor was being sincere. "You know I have a list. It's all things that people have told me I need to either eat, listen to, read, or watch to get caught up. Some time when we're not busy saving the world the two of us should pick something off of the list and do it."

Thor smiled at the offer. "Count me in."

The two of them stood out on the balcony in complete silence just looking out at the city. Lost in their thoughts each taking a small amount of comfort in the fact that they weren't the only outsider in the tower. They had been standing there for the last half hour when Steve's alarm on his phone went off signifying that he needed to check in with J.A.R.V.I.S.. Turning to leave the soldier bid the prince farewell and made his way to his quarters. Truth is he was afraid of what the A.I. had turned up.

* * *

Having just arrived back in his quarters Steve quickly took his jacket off and made his way to the chair that was positioned in front of the laptop. "Well J.A.R.V.I.S. I hope you found something."

"I did indeed sir, but I'm afraid that you're not going to like it." The A.I. warned.

Steve opened up the laptop to look at what was on the screen. What he saw made his blood run cold. It was none other than Arnim Zola himself. That sealed the deal for Steve, not that he'd really needed anymore convincing. Howard must've seen this and that's how he begin to put the pieces together. Pierce may have raised some red flags with Howard, but Zola's involvement would've sealed the deal. "Well I wasn't expecting this. No wonder Howard got found out he had no way of knowing that Zola wasn't actually dead." This was bad some how HYDRA had managed to keep this resource completely compartmentalized from the rest of the organization. The problem was why, and how? With all of these connections to HYDRA Halo International should've been on the Avengers radar once progress begin to be made with the data dump file. Something was wrong, something was bad wrong and he needed to figure out what it was and fast. "J.A.R.V.I.S. has anything else stood out in relation to Halo?"

"Yes sir. It would seem that the company put a lot of effort into getting a freshman Senator elected from Maine named Greg Jacobson."

Steve was alarmed by the news. "Any ties to HYDRA?"

J.A.R.V.I.S. responded with a negative. "With the exception of Halo helping him during his campaign, none what so ever sir."

Steve found this to be odd so far nearly everyone else has had some connection to HYDRA even if it was just in passing. Still events since he had been unfrozen had taught him that things aren't always what they seem. "J.A.R.V.I.S. what can you tell me about Senator Jacobson?"

This time the A.I. took a moment longer to respond than usual. "Well sir I'm afraid there isn't much to tell. Senator Jacobson is 35 years old, married for eight years, no children, and he graduated from Harvard with a degree in business. His wife Rebecca also graduated from Harvard with a degree in graphic design."

It seemed too clean on the surface for Steve if this man was HYDRA he had done a good job of hiding it. "Has he done anything worth mentioning since getting elected to the Senate?"

"Well since getting elected he sponsored a bill that gave additional funding to private security contractors specifically one by the name of Mercury Arms. He also has a charity that he and his wife run called One Day At A Time. It focuses on the children of fallen veterans, the charity does everything from providing mentors and money to these children regardless of their financial standing." The A.I. sounded impressed by the last tidbit of information.

Steve nodded as he listened to the report that J.A.R.V.I.S. provided. Thinking not for the first time how amazing the A.I. actually was. Steve knew that J.A.R.V.I.S. was only a machine but it was easy too forget sometimes. When he had first moved into the tower he had referred to J.A.R.V.I.S. as it all of the time despite Tony's protest. However more and more Steve found himself thinking of the A.I. as a he and not an it. He also knows that he made the right call by asking J.A.R.V.I.S. to be his partner on this case now more than ever. "Interesting that's a very good cause the Senator and his wife have. I wonder..." Pausing as a plan begin to take shape, a way to meet with the Senator to gauge whether or not he had ties to HYDRA. "J.A.R.V.I.S. can you connect me to the Senators office please?"

Now J.A.R.V.I.S. was clearly concerned. "Sir I never thought I would have to say this to you, but I hope you're not planning to do anything stupid."

Laughing at the A.I.'s worry Steve did the only thing he could tell the truth. "More than likely."

"Very well sir. Would you like to be connected via video or audio?" J.A.R.V.I.S. made no attempt to hide how disappointed he was.

Steve took only a moment to think it over. "Video please." He waited while the call connected. After a few moments A young woman's face appeared on the screen. Steve assumed she was the Senators assistant.

"Senator Jacobson's office. How may I help you?"

Steve already knew what he was going to say. So he put on the smile that he had learned from his USO days and began. "Hello Ma'am Captain Steve Rogers calling for the Senator. If he has the free time that is. If not could you possibly provide me with a time in which he would be able to speak with me?"

The assistant became much more attentive suddenly giving the screen her utmost attention. "Oh you're... you're Captain America. One moment please Captain Rogers while I check to see if the Senator is available."

"Of course Ma'am." With Steve's agreement the screen went blank. He waited for a few moments until the screen came back on when it did he was face to face with the Senator. Who by the looks of it was just as surprised as his assistant had been.

"Captain Rogers it's an honor. What can I do for you?" The Senator was both polite and to the point.

Gathering himself remembering his USO time and the lessons Natasha had taught him. Steve took a deep breath before answering the Senator. "Senator Jacobson thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to talk to me. I know that your time is precious to you so I'll get straight to the point. I'll be in D.C. tomorrow on business and I was hoping perhaps I could come by your office. I have a bit of business that I would like to discuss with you in regards to the charity that you and your wife run. I understand that this is short notice, so I'd understand if that's impossible."

A smile suddenly found it's way onto the Senators lips he clearly hadn't expected this. "Absolutely Captain Rogers. How about we meet after lunch, does 1 o'clock work for you?"

"It does." Steve had to rein in his excitement at actually managing to pull this off.

Looking no less pleased than Steve felt the Senator was more than ready to seal the deal, "Great I will let my assistant know. I look forward to meeting you in person tomorrow Captain."

"And I you Senator." With that Steve ended the call.

"J.A.R.V.I.S. I'm going out I'll be back later there are some things I need to do. Get some rest and then if you feel like it see if you can't find any information on Mercury Arms."

"Going to your secret base Captain Rogers? I don't need rest sir. Also might I suggest you take the ear bud I had made for you this way I can relay any information I find directly to you sir." The A.I. was quick to both tease and remind Steve of the obvious.

Getting up Steve goes to his closet and grabs a bag that he keeps packed for emergencies. He takes a quick look around his quarters suddenly the events from the past few days were coming at him, and now he can add Bucky to his list of things that will need to be dealt with. He can't talk to the team about what's going on not yet. He would love to talk to Nat, but he wouldn't feel right asking her to keep a secret like this. Making up his mind "J.A.R.V.I.S. change of plans I'm leaving for D.C. now. I'll be back sometime tomorrow evening."

'Very well sir." Was the only response that the A.I. gave him.

After grabbing his bag he made his way to the garage got on his bike and without a word to anyone Steve sped away from the tower on his way to D.C., it was time to see a friend someone who didn't live at the tower. It was time to go and see a fellow soldier, that and Steve still had to make Sam look good to the nurse at the front desk of the VA.


	5. Chapter 5

Sorry for the long delay, as if my old computer crashing wasn't enough I've been busy with work. We're currently in an phase pf expansion right now, to make matters worse I've also been sick and will be having surgery. Because of this I have no time table for the next chapter, but fear not the next chapter will come. I would like to thank all of you who have reviewed this story.

All errors are my own, enjoy the new chapter.

I do not now nor will I ever own The Avengers

* * *

It was lunch time which had turned into an impromptu welcome back for Thor. Nobody had been expecting the Asgardian back until next week it was a welcome surprise, but still a surprise all the same. They were all seated together Tony, Bruce, Clint, Natasha, and Thor, Pepper was still at work busy keeping the lights on, and well Steve was absent which has become a common sight at the tower in recent days. The only other person missing that lived in the tower was Hill. Clint and Thor were in deep conversation about Thor's trip to Japan, when a very anxious Maria Hill burst into the room. "I've received information on the Winter Soldier. Has anyone seen Steve?"

"Not since the briefing this morning" Answered Clint.

"The Captain and myself spoke at length upon my return. Alas I've not seen him since we parted company." Thor referred to his encounter with Steve earlier, but not the topic of their conversation.

"Why not just ask J.A.R.V.I.S.?" Bruce was the first to suggest the most logical and easy course of action.

Looking somewhat frustrated Hill was a little to quick to respond. "I did but I got no reply back."

"Oops my fault I had him run a diagnostic while I applied a software update to his core matrix. He should be back online now." Tony offered up the explanation as if everyone in the tower should've known what was going on with the A.I..

Deciding to try again given Tony's explanation. "J.A.R.V.I.S.?"

This time the A.I. responded. "Yes Miss Hill."

Satisfied that the A.I. was back and just a little annoyed with how reliant she had become on it Maria made her inquiry. "Where is Steve? I have information about the Winter Soldier, and I wanted to share it with the team so a course of action could be decided on."

"Oh I'm afraid that's quite impossible Miss Hill. Captain Rogers left the tower earlier this morning, and he won't be back until late tomorrow evening." J.A.R.V.I.S. responded.

This got everyone's attention especially Tony's. "What! You mean to tell me that Capsicle just up and leaves for two days and doesn't bother to say anything to anyone?"

Clint was shaking his head at Tony's outburst. "Will you cool it for just a minute Stark? This is a good thing."

Tony who was nothing short of irate looked at the archer as if he'd suddenly grown a second head. "How do you figure that birdbrain? His old pal, turned HYDRA assassin, turned who knows what, is out there possibly gunning for him. And he runs off to D.C. to do god knows what with god knows who. Besides if something happens to spangles that means I'll have to lead this team, and that'll cut into my me time."

Clint always the cool customer decided to enlighten the billionaire. "Look if Cap is in D.C. then that means he's away from the Winter Soldier. With me so far Stark?"

Tony unsure of the point that Clint was working up too only nodded.

Clint took Stark's silence as a sign to continue. "That means that we can deal with the Winter Soldier without Steve and his compromised view on the subject."

It was Thor who didn't like where this was headed. "Surely Barton you're not suggesting that we kill someone with which Steve is so close? Behind his back no less?" The prince does nothing to hide his disgust at the thought.

Afraid it might be taken this way Clint attempts to explain. "No I'm not suggesting that we take Barnes out behind Steve's back. I don't know how to say this." Clint paused and took a deep breath before continuing. What he was about to say he hadn't shared with anyone present not even Natasha. "Look I like Steve respect him even. I've never told anyone this, but after the incident with Loki there was a time when I was on modified assignment. It was during this time that Fury wanted to bring Steve into S.H.I.E.L.D., when it came time to make the sales pitch to Steve, Fury was concerned that Cap might be hesitant due to an incident onboard the Helicarrier so he sent me instead. So I brought Cap in and convinced him to join S.H.I.E.L.D..."

"Congratulations I hope Fury gave you a medal." Tony butted in.

"I wasn't finished." Clint barked out before continuing his recounting of events. "So once he agreed to join despite his reservations about not being a spy. Fury had me show him the basics; basically I was his tour guide through S.H.I.E.L.D.. Well at the end of it all before he was officially assigned a partner. He apologized to me, he told me that he knew getting stuck with the new guy was well below my status, but thanked me for putting up with him. And then without any hesitation what so ever he extended his hand out too me. He told me that he looked forward to being partnered up with me, and that he would do his best to get up to speed. Not many agents in S.H.I.E.L.D. were willing to work with me after Loki, and there Steve was ready and willing without so much as a hint of hesitation." Clint was somber for a moment after recounting his tale of the Captain.

"Sounds like Steve." Bruce is the first to speak again stating the obvious.

Stark began clapping at the conclusion to Clint's tale. Suddenly all the eyes in the room were on him. "That is a beautiful story Barton really it is. But what does any of it have to do with the Winter Solider?"

Natasha who has been quiet this entire time chooses now to speak up. "He's saying that Steve knew that what he did wasn't by choice. The same applies to Barnes he was brainwashed by HYDRA. Therefore Steve is willing to do things the hard way. Plus he and Barnes have a long history at least if Coulson was to be believed."

Nodding in agreement with Natasha, Clint who's still not sure Tony gets it decides to elaborate further. "There's also the fact that the Barnes that Steve lost might not be the one that he gets back. Frankly if the guy can walk away from what HYDRA did to him unscathed, then it would be nothing short of a miracle. I don't think that Steve has considered that possibility. I also don't think that he can look at the Winter Soldier objectively; he's always going to see his best friend. Which when you consider how isolated he's been since he woke up from the ice makes perfect sense."

"We're his friends so it's not like he's alone." Tony exclaims with a hint of anger in his voice.

"It's all a moot point now. My source informs me that a man matching Barnes description metal arm included was spotted stealing a plane at a small flight school, all the way out in New Jersey. He's in the wind again whatever his business was here it's finished." It wasn't often that Maria allowed events to get under her skin. However as she shared the details that she had received about the Winter Soldier with the group, she had to admit that's exactly what she was frustrated. Barnes had practically been in their backyard, and had literally gotten too do as he pleased. Maria also neglected to mention that her source is Nick Fury who most present believe to be dead.

"That's not good. What do we do now? Should we call Steve and let him know? Do we pursue the Winter Soldier on our own?" Bruce seemed genuinely curious as to the teams' next course of action. This wasn't really the scientist area of expertise, there was also the fact that Steve wasn't here and Bruce tended to defer to the soldier's judgment on these types of matters.

"I say we do nothing for the time being. I put the word out too my contacts to send any info regarding anyone that matches Barnes description." Maria offered.

Clint wasn't too happy with recent events and decided to voice his frustrations. "Seems to be the trend lately, first with HYDRA and the Scepter, now with Barnes and these dead bodies."

Tony is confused. "What are you talking about?"

Preparing for another long explanation the archer calmed himself before continuing. "Every lead we've had on Loki's Scepter has turned up zilch. To make matters worse every time we have a HYDRA cell pop up on the map it gets taken out. If I didn't know any better I'd say that someone or something is waging a private war against HYDRA. Which would mean that there's another player on the board one we know absolutely nothing about, and that bothers me?"

Maria didn't like the direction that Barton was taking the discussion. Although if she was honest with herself she was surprised that it had taken this long for someone to broach the subject. She had to be careful here; thankfully she was prepared for this and had an explanation at the ready. "Well the United States Military does have a task force whose sole purpose is to hunt down HYDRA. It's possible that they are beating us to the punch, since they have an intelligence apparatus that's much larger than ours is at the moment."

This got a response from Tony almost immediately. "I almost forgot about that Rhodey mentioned it to me. The task force is being led by some Air Force guy named..."

"Talbot. Glenn Talbot. We've met." Bruce interjected with a sour tone that didn't go unnoticed by anyone at the table.

"What I was getting at before Banner interrupted me was that maybe we should reach out to this Talbot guy. I could call Rhodey, or better yet have Cap do it. The military types all love Capsicle, and I'm sure he would love to do it. I mean it would be nice if he did something for the team given that he has become an absent leader." Tony uses air quotes to emphasize the last part of his statement.

"That's not a good idea. And let's leave it at that." Maria ordered.

Tony looked taken back by being given an order. "Nonsense. J get me Capsicle A.S.A.P."

"I'm afraid I can't do that sir."

Tony was nothing short of astonished at the revelation. "Why not?"

"Well sir Captain Rogers has left his Stark issue phone here. I'm afraid that until he makes contact I have no way to put you in touch with him." The A.I. sounded apologetic at not being able to complete the task that Tony had assigned.

Before Tony could blow up again Bruce intervened on the A.I.'s behalf. "J.A.R.V.I.S. did Steve say where he was going to be staying? Did he say anything of his plans for that matter?"

This the A.I. had an answer to. "Yes Doctor Banner. Captain Rogers said that his first stop was to be the V.A.. He said that he had a friend that he needed to see there."

The inventor suddenly seemed very interested. "Wait Spangles has a friend? Is she hot? What do you know J? The V.A. I wonder if she's a nurse, more importantly does she have a nurses outfit?"

"He's going to see Sam." Natasha stated calmly and clearly stopping the inventor from having any other thoughts about Steve.

"Who is Sam?" Tony asked with a look of puzzlement on his face that the others weren't accustomed to seeing.

"Sam Wilson he's a retired soldier that Steve met when we were stationed in D.C.. When HYDRA was after us, and we had nowhere to go Sam's was the first place Steve thought to take refuge. He also helped take down the Helicarriers, and he went with Steve on his search for Barnes." Natasha was careful not too provide any information that Steve would consider private. She knew how much his privacy meant to him.

"Well how do we know this guy isn't HYDRA? I don't like it someone just happens to meet Cap and suddenly their BFF's. It seems too convenient for my liking." There was a little bitterness to the inventor's tone, that didn't go unnoticed by the rest of the room.

"Wilson's fine Stark he's not HYDRA." Maria declared in an attempt to alleviate what ever it was that was eating at Stark.

The inventor suddenly rose from the table. "No! J I want everything you can find on this Sam Wilson priority one. I guess I'm the only one here who has Steve's back." With that the inventor was marching out of the room, a man on a mission.

Bruce who is confused by Tony's outburst looks to the others for an explanation. "What was that about?"

Clint who's shaking his head at the question. "I'm not sure, but I bet that this Wilson fellow is about to wish that he'd never met Cap."

At the archers statement the entire room erupts into laughter. All of them clueless as to what was going on and just how bad things were about to get.

* * *

Disbelief that's the only word that Sam can think of to describe what he was just told. To say that this is what he'd expected when Steve showed up at the V.A. this afternoon would be an understatement. "Man that's a lot to take in. Have you told anyone else?"

Steve nodded. "Aside from J.A.R.V.I.S. you're the only person that knows."

Sam was surprised by Steve's claim. "You haven't even told Natasha?"

"No. I won't put her in that position."

Sam felt like he had missed a step. "What position would that be?"

"Weren't you paying attention to what I said? Howard said that he didn't want this fight to find Tony. If I told Nat then she would have to keep it a secret. I don't want to put her in a position to lie to the team. I owe it to Howard, and I owe it to Tony." Steve stated as if the answer was an obvious one.

Sam looked at Steve for a moment, and he didn't like what he saw. His friend looked depressed and exhausted, and there was something else to Steve's appearance that Sam just couldn't quite put his finger on. "So aside from needing to unload, what brings you to D.C.?"

Closing his eyes Steve leaned back in the chair he was currently occupying. After showing up at the V.A. Sam had been kind enough to invite Steve back to his place. Upon arriving Steve had recounted the events that have unfolded since receiving the package from Dr. Grayson earlier in the week. "I have a meeting tomorrow with Senator Jacobson who may or may not be HYDRA."

"A HYDRA Senator I thought we got them all when Natasha put the S.H.I.E.L.D. files out there for the world to see." Sam didn't even attempt to hide the alarm that he was feeling.

Steve just shrugged his shoulders, but did nothing to offer a reply to Sam.

It's at that moment that Sam knew what was wrong with his friend. He couldn't put his finger on it a moment ago, but now he knew defeated. That is how Steve looked completely and utterly defeated. Sam didn't like this at all not once since he had known Steve had he seen him look like this. "Alright Cap so what are we going to do about it?"

Steve's head shot up at Sam's question. "No Sam that's not why I told you all of this. I've no intention of dragging you into another one of my fights."

Smiling at Steve's response because he knew it was the truth. "I know that, but I don't like the idea of you doing this alone."

Before Sam could finish his phone rang. Moving from the chair he was occupying opposite of Steve, Sam went to answer the phone which was placed on an end table. "Hello."

"Is this Sam Wilson?" The voice on the other end of the line inquires.

"It is." Sam responded

"Good this is Tony Stark let me talk to Capsicle."

Sam shook his head and looked over at Steve. "Sorry but there is no Capsicle here." Sam could see Steve sigh in frustration.

"I know better I see his bike parked outside on my satellite feed."

Sam looked over at Steve shook his head. "You caught me. But Steve isn't in the mood to talk right now."

Steve mouthed a silent thank you to Sam because he really didn't want to talk to Stark right now.

"What?! At least tell me what hotel he is staying at so that I can get in touch with him. I warn you I have people. One word from me and the Avengers will be at your doorstep in a half hour."

Sighing and rubbing his head in frustration Sam realizes why Steve needed to get away. "Steve is staying with me, now good-bye." With that Sam ended the phone call before Stark could get another word in. Sam then turned to Steve. "I can't believe that he really calls you Capsicle."

Steve, who is still sitting in the chair eyes closed once again, couldn't help but smile. "See I told you so."

With the phone in hand Sam returns to his chair. "So what do we do now?"

"What do you mean?" Steve replied still with his eyes closed.

"I mean we have a while until dinner it's only one o' clock. You can't just want to sit here for the rest of the day. What about HYDRA?" Sam was suddenly very full of energy.

"No HYDRA at least not until after dinner. Pizza sound good? My treat, other than that what else did you have in mind?" Steve was looking a whole lot better now, he was feeling it too.

Sam shrugged "Well before you showed up I was going to go car shopping."

Steve jumped up at the suggestion. "Alright then let's go."

Sam got up grabbed his jacket and keys and then he and Steve were out the door.

* * *

Fury sat at his desk looking over the report that he had just received from Phil Coulson. If this report was to be believed then they had a real problem on their hands, according to the report another program had accessed the Halo servers. The mission had been data retrieval; the idea to leave behind a trojan horse had been a good idea. The hacker Skye; who was a favorite of Coulson's, Barnes also spoke highly of her performance on the mission. Which was very telling, since he'd put Barnes back in the field a little over a month ago he hadn't spoken highly of anyone. Of course Barnes had rarely spoken to, or of anyone since he had been brought in. The only exception had been the psychiatric team that worked with him at every opportunity.

A knock at the door brought Fury out of his musings. "Enter."

The door opened and in walked Barnes. "You sent for me sir."

"Yes. Take a seat, we may have a problem."

Doing as he was told and taking a seat, Bucky then waited for his superior to elaborate.

"Are you certain that Captain Rogers never entered the Halo facility?"

"Yes sir I'm certain, my eyes were on the warehouse the entire time."

"You're certain that he was alone?"

"Yes sir I am. Why?" Barnes was becoming agitated and he was doing nothing to hide it.

Standing up from his desk, realizing that he had pushed Barnes too far. "The program that Skye left behind on their servers, sent back a report that another program accessed the Halo servers. During the same period of time that Rogers was at the warehouse. So if he didn't go in there, and he was by himself, then who or what accessed the servers?"

Nodding his head as understanding dawned on him. "I get it, Steve was there and someone accessed the servers while he was there. If not him then who, could have gained access to the facility?"

Coming to a decision, Fury decided to give Barnes new orders. "Okay we have the Samson Biotech meeting the day after tomorrow. The two of us will take that meeting alone. In the meantime I want you to get Captain Rogers attention, have him looking for you instead of snooping around S.H.I.E.L.D. business." Gone was the man who was having a conversation with an agent under his command. In his place was the cold and calculating spy.

If Barnes had a problem with the order he didn't let it show. His expression was completely stoic, nor was any emotion evident in his voice as he spoke. "Exactly how far do you want me to go with this feint sir?"

"Just get his attention, obviously causing him any form of injury is out of the question. Just make sure that he knows that it's you, hopefully that will pull him away from our own operation. I want you to get your equipment ready you'll leave within the hour. I'll get you a pilot and a location on Rogers."

"Understood sir." Barnes left the conversation at that. Standing up he made his way out of Fury's office and to his quarters so that he could grab his gear. The Winter Soldier had a mission to prepare for.

* * *

Waiting was so boring, when he'd offered to drive and accompany Steve on his appointment with the Senator he hadn't expected to be stuck outside in the office lobby. While Steve got to rub elbows with the Senator and try to figure out if the man is a HYDRA agent. The plan was simple really the two of them had gone over it last night. Steve was going to take the meeting with the Senator under the pretense of contributing to his charity. Steve would use the conversation to determine if the Senator is in fact HYDRA. He would also find a way to steer the conversation toward Mercury Arms. Although Sam had to admit that last part was going to be easier said than done. Hopefully Steve had picked up a few tricks from Natasha. Still Sam couldn't complain too much the Senators assistant was very easy on the eyes.

Sam is observing the assistant, some would call it gawking. He figured it might be best to keep both eyes on her just in case the Senator was HYDRA, they didn't need any surprises. She was on the phone with someone, with his luck it was probably a boyfriend.

"Mr. Wilson."

Suddenly brought out of his thoughts and worried that she had caught him staring he quickly collected himself before responding. "Yes."

"The Senator and Captain Rogers are finished and on their way out. I'm also supposed to give you this; I was told that you would see that Captain Rogers receives it." She produced a slip of paper and beckoned Sam over.

Standing up realizing that he and Steve were done here, Sam walked over to the desk and accepted the piece of paper that she had offered him. "Thank you."

Before Sam could say anything else Steve and the Senator walked into the lobby.

"Thank you Senator Jacobson." Steve said has he extended his hand towards the Senator.

Quick to take the invitation the Senator shook Steve's hand. "No Captain I'm the one that should be thanking you. Our charity will benefit greatly from your support. I'll make sure to send you an invitation to our spring gala to Avengers Tower."

"Thank you sir, well if you will excuse us we need to be on our way." Steve walked over to where Sam was standing, the other man then handed him the slip of paper that he had been given. They both turned and walked out of the door; they walked all the way back to where Sam had parked his rental car in total silence, neither man wanting to speak until they were sure it was safe.

Once they were safely inside of the car is was Sam that spoke first. "Well… is he HYDRA?"

"He is, I'd bet my shield on it. I have no proof, but I know that man is HYDRA."

Sam didn't like that answer not one bit and he did nothing to hide his frustration. "So what, you want to tell me how something like this got missed? Why wasn't he in the data dump file? I mean the man maybe a freshmen senator but he was already in office when HYDRA made their grand comeback. This doesn't make any sense, I mean if something like this wasn't apart of the file. Then what else has been missed?"

Steve had been going over it all in his head after meeting the senator, and he had gone the same place that Sam was going now. "I don't think it was missed."

The super soldier clearly had Sam's attention now. "Please explain it to me Cap, because I'm a little lost."

"It's simple we know that not all of HYDRA went down with the ship so to speak. So what if the senator is a new member of HYDRA, a new recruit if you will to replace the senators they lost when the data dump file went out."

"I get where you're going with this Cap, they're rebuilding the organization. That still doesn't explain Halo International and why it wasn't a part of the data dump."

"I think that was by design. The way I figure it is that Halo was set up for the purpose of laundering HYDRA's money, that's why it has such a large dividend payout. You wouldn't want to put an asset like that on the books, which would also explain why HYDRA is still able to operate even after the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D.. I mean the U.S. Government is freezing bank accounts right and left. If you think about it would actually explain a lot, I wouldn't be surprised if they don't have other legitimate businesses set up to launder money that we're un-aware of."

Not able to find fault with his friends' line of thinking Sam agrees that it does wrap things up nicely. "Okay how does Mercury Arms fit in to this explanation of yours?"

Steve was expecting this question; he had even asked it of himself. "Simple they're private security contractors right."

Sam nods his agreement but remains silent waiting for the soldier to finish his explanation.

"From what I understand about private contractors such as these is that they're basically mercenaries."

"Yes there were some stationed at my base in Afghanistan, they work for whoever will pay their bills. Don't let that fool you though these guys are good, as good as any soldier I've ever served with."

There were a lot of things about how things worked today that Steve knew he would never be alright with. Soldiers who don't fight for any cause other than money was one of them. Of course it wasn't a new concept but it seemed to of become, one of the many things that had become common practice while he'd been frozen. "So what you're saying is that these guys would have no problems working for HYDRA?"

"Well it's not that simple Steve. See contractors like these aren't just used during war time. Contractors are sometimes used by rich people as security for over seas trips, other times they maybe used to secure a diamond mine in Africa. Corporations also use these companies for security purposes, not every company can be Stark Industries." Sam said that last part with a bit of a smile hoping to lighten the mood if only a little.

Crossing his arms and leaning back in the passenger seat, Steve was going over what Sam had just told him. "So basically as long as the check clears."

It was a statement, not a question and Sam knew it. "Well we need to take the car back to the rental office then catch a cab back to my place so we can leave."

"Sam I told you, I didn't come here to drag you into another fight."

Starting the car and flashing his friend a smug grin, he knew Steve would protest, so he had an answer at the ready and he knew it would end the discussion before it even got going. "Well I've been bored since coming home, and I don't like the thought of you looking into this by yourself. Of course I could just call Natasha and let her know that her super soldier play thing is being stupid again."

Steve shook his head at Sam's attempt to strong arm him, not for the first time he was glad that he had gone jogging on one spring morning. "You would do that to me? You would rat me out to my gal?"

The super soldier was doing his best to look hurt, but he was failing and Sam knew it. "Okay let's get this show on the road."

"Think you can get us there without having a wreck?"

This time it was Sam's turn to look hurt. "It was one time, which wouldn't have happened if you and Natasha hadn't knocked on my door."

The two friends shared a laugh as Sam drove through the streets of D.C. Both men feeling better about what lay ahead of them knowing that they each had one another's back against whatever was to come, what ever Steve's investigation turned up he was no longer alone.

* * *

Barnes was situating his gear on the quinjet making sure that he hadn't missed anything, because he wouldn't be coming back to this base until his mission was complete. His plan was simple he was going to make sure that he got Steve's attention when he went on his morning jog. All their lives going back to before the war Steve had always been beholden to a routine, that routine would now be used against him. Once he had his old friends' attention, he would then lead the super soldier on a chase leaving a trail of bread crumbs so Steve wouldn't have any trouble following him. He would then lead the soldier out of New York State up into Canada where he would be well away from Director Fury's OP.

"Barnes." Fury called for him bringing out of both his physical and mental preparations.

"Sir."

Fury took only a second too look over everything that Barnes had in the quinjet, he was well prepared unfortunately things had changed. "There's been a change of plans; my source tells me that Captain Rogers is in D.C. we don't need any trouble in the capitol. Also our agent in Samson Biotech reports that a member of the research team has been murdered.

Barnes immediately stiffened he'd been around long enough to know when bodies begin to drop it can only mean a few things. Those in charge could be tying up loose ends, some innocent researcher begins asking questions, or it was completely unrelated. From his experience the latter was very unlikely. "Your agent sir, has he been compromised?"

"It's too soon to tell, Coulson's girl is on it. The meet has been moved up to tomorrow night, until further notice your other missions are on hold. Understood?"

Truth is Bucky was a little relieved, he wasn't looking forward to dealing with Steve again; this would be a welcome distraction. "I understand sir. But why are we waiting so long to meet up with the agent? If he has been compromised sooner would be better."

Fury nodded as he made his way to the co-pilot seat. "It would unfortunately all of the employees are being questioned by the police and corporate security today. Now get this bird in the air, that's an order soldier." Fury ordered as he occupied the co-pilot seat.

"Corporate security, you expect they're be a problem sir?" Barnes took his seat and waited for Fury's response while he prepped the quinjet.

"Doubt it they're private contractors, Mercury Arms S.H.I.E.L.D. had a few dealings with them, mostly when it came to rich people who had things that they needed to be relieved of."

Barnes nodded in understanding, while firing up the quinjet's engines. "Good we wouldn't want things to get too difficult for us."

Fury smiled despite the situation at hand, without another word exchanged between the pair their quinjet lifted off and headed for New York.

* * *

"I can't believe that Capsicle didn't come home last night. I swear he's doing this just to annoy me, he knows that my time is very valuable." It was a new day at the tower and the teams wayward Captain had yet to return hadn't even called, and Stark was making sure that everyone knew about it.

The towers residents Maria Hill and Pepper Potts included were on their way to the common room while they waited for the morning meal to be ready.

Pepper who was used to dealing with the inventor and his ramblings tried to smooth the situation over. "Tony lay off Steve is entitled to have a life and friends, besides I'm sure he didn't plan it this way."

"Betrayal from you Pepps really, that hurts, I mean no one will ever accuse Spangles of being the life of the party, but at least he was dependable." Before Tony could finish his speech the group stopped and stared at the scene that none of them had expected to see. In the common room were Steve and another man each with a glass in his hand, both of them laughing completely oblivious that they were no longer alone.

It was Tony who made the teams presence known. "What the hell is going on here?"

Both men stood taking notice of the team and the fact that they weren't alone any longer. Steve decided to speak up and answer the billionaires question instead of letting a silence settle on the room and it occupants. "Hey this is Sam."

Interrupting before Steve could finish Tony demanded an answer. "I know who he is; I want an answer to my question."

"Well we were talking, and then Sam mentioned the bar so I offered him a drink. He took me up on it, so I poured us each some scotch. We came back over here and sit down, and continued talking, and then you all walked in." Steve did his best to explain he could tell that the inventor was on the verge of a blow up for some reason. He really didn't want to get into another argument with the inventor while Sam was here.

"How can you just bring someone into this tower, what if he is a HYDRA agent? You just put us all at risk, and you don't seem to care. Also, since when do you have company?"

"Tony!" Pepper cut the inventor off before he could dig himself any deeper. Pepper made her way over to the two soldiers and gave Sam a proper greeting. Attempting to diffuse this situation before Tony said something to really get Steve upset.

"Mr. Wilson, I'm Pepper Potts welcome to Avengers Tower."

Still standing Sam was grateful for Pepper inserting herself into the situation, he could tell that things were getting ready to go south between the billionaire and the super soldier. Now that he was here at the tower he had to wonder if this level of animosity was normal from the inventor, or if Steve's recent activities were a factor. Sam was willing to bet it was the latter; one of the first things that he learned about Steve was that he was loyal sometimes to a fault. Steve had told him that Howard had asked him to keep his son out of this fight, he's been a counselor at the V.A. long enough to know that no matter how this plays out Steve is going to lose. Chasing those thoughts from his head, because now wasn't the time to be worrying over un-spilt milk. "Thank you for the welcome Ms. Potts; it really is a nice tower that you have here."

"Hey it's my tower not hers." The inventor was quick to chime in.

Shaking his head at how quickly his friend could put his foot in his mouth, Bruce felt the need to intercede before things derailed. "Well I thought that it was 12% hers."

"Really you too Bruce, I did all the heavy lifting besides she was responsible for that snafu in the elevator with the sweaty construction workers. All of that equals 12% although a case could've been made for 15."

This earned the inventor a scowl from Pepper. "Unfortunately we didn't get to finish that conversation."

"Good to see you again Sam." Natasha moved forward to greet Sam partly because she was tired of hearing Tony and Pepper's banter. Mostly she was surprised to see that Sam was here at all, it wasn't like Steve to bring unannounced guest to the tower. Those two were up to something she knew it; problem is she didn't have any idea what they were up to. She knew though that if Sam was here it was for a reason, which means he is in on whatever Steve's side project is. It was high time that she get some answers if left to their own devices those two can cause as much trouble as Stark and Banner.

Before Sam could return the greeting J.A.R.V.I.S. interrupts the group. "Captain Rogers I hate to interrupt, but if Mr. Wilson is to make his flight you two will need to be leaving."

"Thanks J.A.R.V.I.S." Steve was glad for the A.I.s timing, he was afraid that the others were going to start asking questions. Steve motioned for Sam to move before anyone could begin to question what was going on. "Come on Sam we can take one of the community cars from the garage."

"Sounds good to me. Think you can get us there without wrecking the car?"

Deciding to take the bait and fire back at his friend the soldier shot back at his friend. "Funny the way I remember it you're the one that had the wreck."

Sam didn't even attempt to look offended at the soldier's words. "That wasn't my fault it was your old friend that caused the wreck in the first place. You still owe me a new car for that by the way."

Steve smiled at the remark because it had become a running joke between the two friends while they were globe trotting looking for Bucky. "Well it's not my fault that your insurance didn't have a HYDRA clause." The two friends continued their banter as they boarded the elevator and headed to the garage.

* * *

Pepper found Tony in their private quarters half an hour later, he had acted upset when Steve and Sam had left the tower. She had known Tony Stark pretty well and this was different from how he usually acted. Which caused her to be concerned; while she loved the inventor he didn't always make things easy. If something was bothering him it was best to deal with it now before it had a chance to fester. "Penny for your thoughts."

"Please Pepper we both know my thoughts are worth a lot more than that."

"What's wrong with you? You've been acting weird since Steve and his guest left the tower."

Sighing the inventor put down the tablet that he was using. "Did you see them together? They were joking and laughing with each other. Who knew that Capsicle had it in him?"

"Oh my god you're jealous!" Pepper couldn't help how it came out in all the years she had known the billionaire she'd rarely seen this side of him.

"My dad used to tell me stories about Captain America growing up. Then when I actually met the man we didn't get along at first, but now after everything I get why my dad had such a respect for Steve. I've tried Pepps really I have, but no matter what I do Spangles just won't budge."

She'd been right about where this conversation had been going. She had been watching both the man she loved and the famed super soldier interacting together for weeks, so she had a pretty good idea what the problem was. "You know not only are you and Steve completely different people. You're both from completely different times, so it makes sense that you two would clash. While Steve and your dad were also different people, they didn't have the time barrier to overcome. It also probably didn't hurt that they had a war to fight and an enemy in front of them. Perhaps you shouldn't try so hard give it time, in a lot of ways Steve is still trying to find his way."

"You're probably right, thanks for the advice Pepps. Let me show you how grateful I am."

Pepper smirked at the invitation. "Fine but make it quick I have a meeting in thirty minutes.

* * *

Sitting in the drop-off area at LaGuardia Airport Steve was waiting to for the cars ahead of him to pull away so that he could drop Sam off at the central terminal building. Then it was back to the tower to go through the new intel that J.A.R.V.I.S. had dug up. The plan was simple with little risk involved Sam was going to fly to Mercury Arms U.S. office in Texas, and take a tour under the pretense that it was all about potentially giving them a contract to work with the Avengers. This would give them a chance to do a little bit of digging without raising to many suspicions. "Well here we are. You have everything that you need?"

Sam couldn't help but laugh it was at least the tenth time that the soldier had asked the question since they had left the tower. "Will you relax I'm just going to take a tour of the place."

"Sorry I just hate that you'll be there by yourself, if something goes wrong I won't be able to get to you in time."

Based on the history books not many people would peg Captain America as a worrier, but Sam saw it for what it was. It wasn't that he didn't think that others couldn't take care of themselves, when what it really boiled down to was that he was a man that truly cared about those closest to him. "I know, but there is no reason to suspect that there is going to be trouble. Steve before I leave I want to tell you something. I know that you told me that in his message Howard asked you to keep Tony out of this. I also understand honoring the request of a brother in arms, but Stark is an Avenger."

Steve was confused his friend was telling him things that he already knew. "I know that Sam, you're not telling me anything I don't already know."

"My point is this is a no win situation you're in, you need to be prepared to bring him into the fold sooner rather than later. You also need to talk to Natasha she was clearly suspicious, off course she's a spy so that may just be her natural state. In short you need to talk to the people in your life sooner rather than later."

He knew that Sam was right, he just wasn't sure now was the right time to go blabbing to everyone about his mission. "I know all of that, but I feel that it's too early to tell the team. Right now the only real HYDRA connections that we have are a bunch of dead people we need more evidence. How about we make a deal?"

Sam gave his friend a dubious look at that proposition. "Okay I'm listening."

"Let's keep digging, not take any action. Just keep following the breadcrumbs and see where they lead. Then I will present the findings to the team, and go from there. I'm not suggesting that the two of us storm a HYDRA base; I have every intention of bringing the team in on this. Once I have something to show them that's more than some holdings of a bunch of dead HYDRA agents."

Sam had to admit that Steve had a point they had nothing concrete to point to a giant HYDRA conspiracy, as long as all they're doing is investigating. Then where's the harm in that? "Deal, now I need to go or I may miss my flight. I'll check in with you tomorrow after my first set of meetings."

Steve hated to see his friend go, but there was no way he could take two trips like this back-to-back and not incur the wraith of Tony. "Good luck, and call me if you need anything."

"I will." Was all Sam said as he grabbed his bag from the back seat and exited the car.

Leaving Steve alone with his thoughts on the drive back to the tower, Sam was right he needed to at least talk to Natasha and explain his behavior. After that he needed to get back to his investigation, he knows that Howard was onto HYDRA's money scheme. Problem was he just didn't know how he was going to connect all of the dots more than 20 years later.

* * *

Natasha was at the terminal in her quarters going over the intel that Hill had given them all at the morning briefing. Her mind kept going back to Steve, and the scene they'd all walked in on this morning. She knew something was up, but the fact that he had went and recruited Sam spoke volumes. A normal person in her position would be upset that their boyfriend went to someone else with his troubles, however given her past she understood Steve's choice. That didn't mean that she didn't want answers as to what was going on, problem was that Steve had a reputation of being stubborn. So if he didn't want to share, then frankly he wouldn't share and that was that. It was just a few moments later when the towers A.I. called for her attention. "Pardon the intrusion Miss Romanoff, but Captain Rogers is outside your door."

Standing up from the terminal Natasha, gracefully moved toward the door in order to greet Steve, his timing couldn't be better hopefully he would be forthcoming with answers. "Thank you J.A.R.V.I.S., please let him in."

Steve didn't even wait to be invited in as soon as the door opened he walked in, the soldier didn't say a word as he went straight for the spy, took her in his arms and kissed her deeply and passionately. Continuing the moment of passion the soldier effortlessly lifted the spy and moved them both farther into her quarters. "J.A.R.V.I.S. unless the world is in danger don't disturb us."

"I understand Captain Rogers."

Natasha loved this side of the soldier, but there was a lot of risk doing what he wanted to do inside of the tower. "Steve someone could catch us. Are you okay with that? Because once that cat is out of the bag there's no putting it back in."

"Nat no one else is here everyone is gone doing their own thing, we're literally the only two in this part of the tower."

The look on the spy's face turned to one of pure desire as she spoke her next words extremely seductively. "Then I suggest we not waste another second, when we can be in my bedroom putting that super soldier stamina of yours to good use."

Three hours later the pair were lying comfortably in Natasha's bed, the spy was resting her head on the soldiers arm playing with his fingers. When she decided to broach the subject that she had meant to bring up earlier, but got distracted. "So you want to tell me what's going on? Please don't insult me and say nothing we both know better."

Sighing Steve knew that he had been found out; he was never very good at hiding things, especially from Natasha. "I'm looking into something for a friend, and they requested that I keep Tony out of it."

She was surprised at the answer, the soldier didn't have a lot of friends in fact almost everyone that he considered a friend was a resident of the tower. The only real exceptions that she knew of were the wayward Barnes and of course Sam. The spy in her though could appreciate his desire to keep his friend anonymous, so she decided not to press for this friends name for now. "Okay so why not tell me? I can keep a secret; I can sure as hell keep a secret from Tony Stark."

"I know you can Nat I've seen you do it, I just didn't want you to have to lie to anyone because of me."

She couldn't help the laughing that ensued at the soldier's statement. "You do realize that I'm already lying to everyone, we both are by keeping us a secret."

He knew she'd go there, a part of him knew that she was right, but he also didn't feel that who he was involved with was the whole tower's business either. He and Natasha were both consenting adults, their personal lives were just that personal. "I know, but this is different Nat, this isn't about someone's privacy. When Tony finds out what's going on, what has gone on. He's going to be hurt and angry and he'll have every right to be. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if he tells me to leave the tower."

Natasha sat upright at the soldier's revelation, she turned to look at him to really look at him the tone he had taken on worried her, what she saw worried her even more. It was a look she had seen time and time again working in the field at S.H.I.E.L.D. it was a look of guilt and defeat. The spy didn't know what was going on, but she knew one thing for certain that whatever this was its eating Steve up. "What are you looking into?" There was no longer any hint of playfulness to her voice, her tone was all business.

"HYDRA" The soldier didn't even attempt to hide this disdain at the mention of the organization.

The spy knew there was more to the story; the Avengers were already all over HYDRA as were most of the world's governments. "I don't buy it pretty much every government in the world is chasing HYDRA. Why is this investigation so special?" Then suddenly the spy knew what it was, she knew what made this different. "You know something, something that no one else knows."

It was a statement not a question, and Steve knew it. "Maybe right now I have some loose connections, but if we're right we may have found how HYDRA has been able to hide some of its money. Thus why despite the governments best efforts the organization still has enough money to operate."

What Steve said made a lot of sense; both the spy and the field agent in her knew it. Still how do you hide assets of that size without them being noticed? An organization the size of HYDRA needed a lot of money to operate, that's a lot of money too much to go unnoticed by people looking and there were a lot of people looking. As a spy Natasha knew all about moving money and keeping funds hidden, but this was on a scale that she'd never heard of. "It's not enough to hide the money, especially if you're using it to fund something the size of HYDRA. It would need to be clean; other wise people would find it and trace it back to the source."

Steve sat upright at the spy's declaration. "You're talking about money laundering, aren't you?"

The spy simply nodded in response to the soldier's question.

Steve was suddenly very full of energy jumping out of the bed he moved to get dressed, calling for the A.I. in the process. "J.A.R.V.I.S. we have work to do."

"Yes sir I heard, I'm running the data sets now thus far they look promising. Also Mr. Wilson's flight landed and he has checked into the hotel. There has also been another development I'm afraid. A researcher by the name of Albert Mercer working for Samson Biotech has been murdered."

The news that the A.I. delivered was both welcomed, but raised questions at the same time. The soldier needed more information to proceed. "Ok how is this connected?"

The A.I. had anticipated this question from the soldier. "The researcher worked for Samson Biotech on an undisclosed project with a grant that was provided by Halo International. Samson Biotech employs Mercury Arms to handle all of their security needs."

That was too many connections for Steve's taste; this deserved to be looked into. "I need to get into that crime scene. Is there anyway that can happened J.A.R.V.I.S., or is the crime scene still on lockdown?"

"Yes sir, but not until nightfall I'm afraid."

"That's five hours away!" The soldier didn't hide the agitation he was feeling at having to wait.

Natasha was still on the bed watching the exchange between the soldier and the A.I., Steve was currently all business it was almost as if both of them had forgotten that she was even in the room. "So we go to the crime scene and we're looking for what exactly?"

Steve turned and looked at her as if she'd grown another head. "Nat you know you don't have to do this, it could turn out to be nothing."

"Don't even think about going all 1940's on me, and tell me to stay put."

Steve looked at the spy, she never ceased to amaze and surprise him. Of course if the situation were reversed he would do whatever he could to help her. Still he was elated that she shared this side of herself with him. Most people only knew the quick witted, efficient spy few people got to see all the layers that she actually possessed. "J.A.R.V.I.S. she's going to need one of the special ear buds."

"Of course sir, it will be in her mailbox by the time you both leave."

Steve looked down at Natasha who was still in the bed. "Well we have some time to kill before we have to leave. Whatever are two consenting adults to do in order to pass the time?"

She noticed the mischievous tone in which the soldier had posed the question; still she couldn't argue it was a good idea. "Take your pants off."

A look of pure lust graced the soldiers face as he was all to happy to comply. "Yes ma'am."

* * *

Nearly six hours later and the soldier and spy found themselves in Staten Island where the late Albert Mercer had lived, which also happened to be where he had been murdered. Steve had filled her in on what she figured were most of the details, about Halo International, his secret base. That last one raised a lot of questions with her, but she had let them be for now, she had met Steve in a back alley in Brooklyn in what looked to be a deserted neighborhood.

What she had seen when she picked him up in that alley had surprised her, there he was in a combat suit not unlike the stealth suit he had wore while at S.H.I.E.L.D. only it had a full face mask. Proof to the spy that whoever this friend was they had a lot of resources, she wondered for just a moment if it hadn't been Fury who reached out to Steve. She's quickly dismissed that notion however, it was clear to the spy that whoever this friend is they meant a lot to the soldier, that was evident by how far he had gone to keep it a secret even from her.

Here they were in Staten Island at night about to break into a crime scene, in order to look for a connection to HYDRA that may or may not exist. Although based on everything that Steve had told her thus far about what he and J.A.R.V.I.S. had found someone turning up dead, with that many connections to everything that he was investigating definitely raised more than one red flag. Natasha had been in this line of work long enough to know that there were no such things as coincidences, especially in this line of work. Still the spy figured if this was a professional job they would know soon enough, before leaving the tower she'd asked J.A.R.V.I.S. to locate a copy of the police report he should have it by the time the pair arrive back at the tower.

"You ready Nat?" Steve questioned completely unaware that he'd interrupted the spy's thoughts.

The spy nodded an affirmative and placed the ear bud that J.A.R.V.I.S. had made for her in her ear, she had tested it before she even left the tower so she knew it worked. "What you don't like sitting in a parked car with your girlfriend, isn't this what was considered a hot date back in the day?"

The soldier turned toward the spy with a grin on his face, knowing full well what she was up to. "Well maybe for some people, but I didn't have a car and even if I did I didn't have any dates to go and park with." The soldier mimicked the spy's earlier action by placing his ear bud in his ear as well. "J.A.R.V.I.S. do you have anything for us?"

"Yes sir I do, but I'm afraid that you won't like it. The death has been ruled a suicide and the digital file has been altered. It has been altered quite well if I may say so sir." The A.I. always seemed to have answers when called on, even if the answers weren't what everyone wanted to hear.

Natasha had been in this business long enough to know a cover up when an advanced A.I. laid one out for her. "Someone is covering this up, well that seals it let's get in there and see what we can find."

That was fine with Steve he was ready to get in and get out. "Sounds good to me." With that the soldier pulled the face mask over his head and activated the chameleon mesh becoming invisible in the eyes of the spy and he was out of the car making his way to the house.

The spy looked on in disbelief, at the scene that had just played out in front of her. "I've got to get me one of those." Putting her wonderment aside she to left the safety of her car and moved towards the house, they couldn't get in until she picked the lock to the backdoor.

Once she arrived at the backdoor she begins picking the lock. Which took her less than seven seconds, once the door was open she spoke just loud enough for her ear bud to pick up. "I know you're back there quit enjoying the view and get inside. I'm going to check the outside of the house to see if there are any signs that someone broke in."

"Sounds good, but be careful." Was the soldier's only reply as he turned off the chameleon mesh and appeared inside of the doorway. Taking off the face mask he made his way further into the house. It only took him about a minute to locate what must've been Albert Mercer's home office. He immediately took notice of a small safe that was built into a bookshelf. He walked over to examine it, it was a small safe meant for documents or media. Looking at it closer though he could see that it had been opened, before he could look any closer he heard the cocking of a gun.

"Don't move, turn around slowly."

Steve did as he was told, he knew the owner of the voice, hoping against hope that he was wrong. He turned and faced the man that was his brother. "Bucky."


	6. Chapter 6

Sorry for the long delay, my recovery took longer than expected. Once that was done I had a lot of work to catch up on. With convention season around the corner I am going to be even busier with work. So in the future expect that my chapters will be shorter. Part of the reason this chapter took so long is because I had a fight scene which is something I've never done before. I hope it's passable to you guys. Also due to some PM's I have received let me clear something up. This story has and will deviate from established cannon.

I would like to thank everyone for their well wishes while I was recovering. I would also like to thank everyone for their reviews you guys are great. I hope you all enjoy the new chapter.

Marvel and Disney still own The Avengers and everything that entails.

* * *

Steve couldn't believe what was happening, for months after the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D. he had searched for Bucky. In all that time, he had found no trace of his friend, he had accepted the fact that Bucky hadn't wanted to be found. Now here he was staring at his best friend, who was pointing a gun at him. He felt a plethora of emotions now; he was happy, shocked, relieved, and concerned all at the same time. Having a gun pointed at him by his best friend wasn't the ideal situation for the soldier, but he had been in worse situations before. He needed to find a way to reach Bucky and diffuse this before Natasha walked in on them.

"It's me Steve Rogers, your name is James Buchanan Barnes but I call you Bucky. You're my best friend, my brother even and this isn't you. HYDRA they did this to you, they messed with your head. You need to fight it Bucky fight, I'm not your enemy."

Steve scanned his friends face to see if any of what he'd said was sinking in. Unfortunately, Barnes face was a mask of stoicism, the soldier was afraid that it would take more than words to get through to his friend.

Before he could decide what to do next Barnes shocked him by speaking. "I know who you are Steve, I remember everything, well everything up to a point. Now explain to me what it is you're doing here."

Steve couldn't believe it Bucky remembered him, the word happy didn't accurately describe how he felt in that very instant. "I searched for you after S.H.I.E.L.D. fell, I searched for months hoping to find you and make everything alright,"

For a moment, the two men stood in complete silence both realizing that this wasn't how either of them had envisioned their reunion.

The two friends were so focused on each other that neither realized that they we no longer alone, until a voice broke them from their reverie. "Put your gun down and step away from him slowly. Then you can explain to us what you're doing here."

Natasha had heard the whole thing play out over the comms, she hadn't expected for Barnes to be here. He was supposed to be in the wind per the intel they'd gotten from Hill. She had quietly made her way back into the house, hoping that the threat of getting shot would back Barnes down. Despite her command, Barnes had yet to drop his gun, instead he made no movement what so ever.

"I said drop your gun and step away slowly." This time she had a much more threatening tone to her voice, she hated to repeat herself but she didn't want to shoot him especially not in front of Steve.

Barnes addressed the spy without ever taking his eyes or gun off the super soldier. "I heard you the first time, but what you don't realize is that I have the advantage here."

Steve stood there watching the situation escalate; he could see that Natasha was in full Black Widow mode now. He mentally kicked himself he should've known that Natasha would've been able to hear him and Bucky talking to one another. Every since he had gotten Howard's message he'd been making rookie mistakes, and now he needed to diffuse this situation before someone got hurt. "How about you both put your guns down and we talk this out? There's no need for anyone to get hurt."

"I couldn't agree more Captain. Barnes, Romanoff holster your side arms."

Both the soldier and spy knew the owner of the voice, but neither had expected to run into him here. There seems to be a lot of that going around tonight. It was Steve that reacted to the newcomer first. "Fury what are you doing here?"

"Same as you and Romanoff, looking for answers." The former head of S.H.I.E.L.D. directed his words at the super soldier; but he was staring directly at Barnes.

By this time, Bucky had holstered his gun, he walked past the spy to stand in front of Fury. "Sir the safe is empty; chances are any files that were in there have been destroyed. It's what I would've done had it been my mission."

Steve was surprised that Bucky was reporting to Fury. When this had started or how the soldier didn't know. It was certainly not something that he had been expecting; the soldier felt relief at the thought of Bucky being alright. He was also angry at the thought that Bucky had been with Fury long enough for them to be this comfortable with one another. "So, you two are working together now?"

"Is that a problem Captain?" The former director's tone made it clear that it didn't matter what the soldier thought.

A realization suddenly struck the soldier, a question that he needed an answer to. "You ordered Bucky to hit the Halo storage facility, didn't you?"

"What if I did?"

The soldier wasn't at all surprised by the non-answer he received. "So, did you order Hill to give me bad intel in regards to Bucky, or did she act on her own?"

Nick Fury could kick himself he should've known better then to use Hill to pass along intel on the Winter Soldier. The problem was that this whole operation has gotten out of control and its all thanks to Steve Rogers.

Nick Fury wasn't one to explain himself to others, but Hill was too important of an asset to lose. "Hill doesn't know about Barnes, the intel that I gave her was to throw you off."

The former director could tell that his explanation wasn't helping matters any. He was surprised and that didn't happen often, looking at the famed soldier he could see that he was anything but alright with the current situation. He had to admit that this wasn't exactly how he'd wanted everything to come to light, he needed to do something to prevent the situation from getting out of hand. Thankfully there was someone here that the Captain would listen to. "Romanoff, we need to talk."

Once Fury made his presence known, Natasha knew he would want to speak with her to get a sense of what had led them here. She hadn't expected to find her old boss here, of course she was shocked to find that he and the Winter Soldier were working together. The spy could only imagine how Steve was feeling now, he spent all that time looking for Barnes only to discover that he was safe and sound with Fury. It's this sort of business that put the two at odds with one another when the soldier had worked for S.H.I.E.L.D... That's why she finds Steve's recent behavior, both troubling and amusing. Stealing a quick glance at the soldier, she was ready to give Fury an answer. "Sure."

"You boys behave yourselves." Was all she said has both her and Fury left the room.

Steve removed his earbud, and waited until he was sure both Natasha and Fury were gone. Once he was sure that he and Bucky were alone he decided to get some answers. "So, you Fury's boy now?"

"What if I am? It's not a crime, especially if the man has helped me out."

The soldier was concerned by what he was hearing, he had been afraid of HYDRA finding Bucky and taking advantage of his mental state. Now he was afraid that Fury was doing just that, he hated to be pushy, he just wanted his old friend to know that he had choices. "Bucky I can help you, I can see that you get the help that you need no strings attached."

Bucky scoffed at Steve's statement, this wasn't how he'd wanted their first meeting to be, but here they were and it was high time his old friend got hit with a little truth. "There is no quid pro quo here. Director Fury saved me, he's helping me recover from what HYDRA did to me. He saved me and for that I'm grateful, but more importantly he's my chance to get revenge against HYDRA for everything they did to me."

"No Buck not like this. I want them to pay for what they've done to you, but there have to be limits." The soldier didn't like where his friends head was at. Of course, he understood why Bucky was angry, he was angry for what HYDRA had done to his friend as well. He just wanted to make sure that Bucky was operating from a good place, not making decisions out of a need for revenge.

"That's a very easy thing for you to say isn't it Steve. All of us didn't get to go to sleep and wake up to fanfare and celebration. Life went on for the rest of us, and for some of us it was hell!" Bucky's voice took a more confrontational tone, but he didn't care. This is exactly why he hadn't wanted to see Steve, while he'd made a lot of progress his famous friend was the center of some not so friendly emotions. Emotions that he'd been doing his best not to deal with. He could see that his friend was also dealing with something. _Look at us after everything we've been through. Who would've thought that the two of us would end up here in a new century? Our war unfinished, our home unrecognizable, we're on different sides yet we're neither enemies nor allies. Funny thing is I can pinpoint when everything went south, it all went south on that damn train._

All the emotions that the S.H.I.E.L.D. doctors have been telling him to deal with were now at the surface. He was angry, angry over everything that had happened to him. He was jealous of how easy things appeared for Steve. He was also furious at Steve for failing to reach him on that train, furious with his best friend for asking him to join the commandos in the first place. Suddenly thought and reason were out the window, he wanted to provoke a response to hell with the consequences. "I really need to have words with Fury. I didn't get the same deal that you did where a partner is concerned."

Not sure where his old friend was heading with this the soldier thought it best to put an end to this conversation. "Bucky don't go there." Steve was in full Captain America mode now; his tone of voice would've been enough to give even The Hulk pause.

He heard Steve's tone change and knew that he was on the right track. This was going to feel good, he'd regret it in the morning, but right now he just didn't care. Few people could say they knew Steve Rogers as well as he did, that's how he knew his friend was on the verge of losing control. "You know Fury told me all about her. First, she was the KGB's whore, then she was S.H.I.E.L.D.'s whore, now it seems that she's your whore."

Bucky saw the punch coming, he barely had time to get his prosthetic arm up to block the punch. before he even knew what happened he was against the wall his arm with a dent in it. With an angry Steve Rogers glaring at him. "Shut up Bucky, just shut up! You don't ever talk about her that way not now, not ever."

The soldier was angrier than Bucky had ever seen him, Steve wasn't prone to this kind of anger. Realizing that he misjudged just how angry Steve is, and the fact that his robotic arm now has a dent in it. It didn't matter to him that he'd misjudged just how angry Steve Rogers was, still he wanted this, no he needed this. Without saying another word, Bucky rushed at his best friend, he managed to catch him by surprise and tackle him to the ground.

It took the super soldier less than a second to recover from his shock.

The two best friends were grappling with one another, both trying to gain the upper hand. Bucky was using his bionic arm to keep Steve from gaining the upper hand. He knew that if it came to a contest of pure strength that the super soldier would easily win. Before Bucky could make his next move, Steve grabbed him and threw him off. Sending him crashing through the desk and into the wall.

Bucky quickly righted himself, before he could even make a move the super soldier was already on him. Steve forced Bucky back against the wall, the super soldier used his left arm to grab his best friend by the neck and begin striking him in the face with his right elbow. If there was any doubt in his mind that he had taken things too far, they were put to rest by the fact that his best friend, his brother currently had him pressed against the wall striking him in the head. He'd never seen Steve this aggressive, he could see that his friend was having issues. Realizing that he needed to do something drastic to keep from having his face turned into meatloaf.

Bucky used his bionic hand to grab the buckle on Steve's belt that looked like his shield, he was planning to use it to lift Steve and force him into another position so that he couldn't leverage his superior strength. Instead once he applied pressure to the buckle with his bionic hand sparks and smoke shot out, Steve stopped his assault and looked down at the belt. The distraction was all the Winter Soldier needed, he hit the super soldier with a right hook. The blow would've put a normal person on the ground, possibly broken their jaw.

Bucky was waiting on the counter punch, but it never came instead what he saw, was his best friend, not the legendary super soldier. His friend looked lost, and defeated, defeated in a way he hadn't seen since Steve's mother Sara passed away. Suddenly all the emotions that had found their way to the surface, were quickly forgotten, and were instead replaced with concern and regret.

"What are we doing Steve?"

"Something we shouldn't be. Look Buck I'm sorry, I don't want to fight you."

Bucky shook his head. "No, I'm the one that should be apologizing to you. I'm dealing with some issues now, and I am some ways off from having them resolved."

Steve nodded his head in understanding. "Take a number."

The two friends were interrupted before they could reconnect any further. "What the hell happened here?!"

The pair turned to see Natasha and Fury standing just inside the room. Before Fury could demand any details, Steve pointed his finger at Bucky. "He started it."

Bucky turned to look at the soldier with a look of righteous indignation, that no one in the room believed for a second. "You threw the first punch."

"That's factually true I did throw the first punch, but it's morally false."

"You were in the ice for too long. What does that even mean?"

"What it means Bucky, is that you provoked me." Steve had a mocking tone that didn't go unnoticed by the rest of the room.

Chuckling lightly, Bucky nodded in agreement. "It's true I did provoke you, rather well I might add. Well played punk, well played"

"Don't feel bad Buck I live with Tony Stark, you never had a chance."

Everyone in the room shared a small laugh at the soldiers' joke.

Looking at the scene unfolding before her eyes Natasha couldn't help but feel a small ounce of regret. Regret that more people didn't get to see this side of Steve Rogers. People don't see his love of art, his love of cooking, and his sense of humor, or the fact that he worries about those closest to him. She supposes that it's one of the many pitfalls of fame. The spy is snapped from her thoughts once Fury begins to address the room.

"We've already hacked into the NYPD and had this ruled a suicide. We're looking into this as part of a S.H.I.E.L.D. investigation. I would like if we could work together on this Captain."

"Sorry but, the answer is no." Steve's reply was firm and commanding.

"Well I tried. Barnes we're done here." With Fury's words both he and Bucky made to leave. Before he left the room, Bucky turned to face Steve, who was now standing next to Natasha. "You know punk the world has changed, and we no longer belong. While that might not be an issue for you two love birds now, it will be one day. When that day comes don't say that I didn't warn you."

Natasha watched as the Winter Soldier exited the room after speaking his peace. She didn't trust him, nor was she fond of him. Based on his comments to Steve the feeling was mutual. She still couldn't believe that he and Fury were working together. She couldn't fathom how Steve must be feeling he had traveled the world in search of his best friend. Only to learn that he has been with Fury, not just with him, but working for him as well. She turned to look at Steve hoping he would tell her what had happened. "You two sure did a number on the place."

"Like I said he provoked me."

She was concerned by his answer, but she didn't let it show. While she had no doubt that Barnes had in fact provoked Steve. She and Fury had only been outside for five minutes, this home office looked like the Hulk had made it his personal playroom. It clearly hadn't taken much to provoke Steve, which confirms what she's suspected over the last couple of days. Which is that he's on edge, still he seems to be doing better already. His posture has changed some of the tension has left, she can see this just by looking at him. Hopefully whatever happened between him and the Winter Soldier got it all out of his system. Glancing around the room surveying the damage that the two had done she noticed something protruding from the now shattered shelf. "See that?"

Steve looked where the spy was pointing. He could see something protruding from one of the shelves that had been shattered during his and Bucky's fight. "What is it?"

The spy knelt and inspected the protrusion. "It's a flash drive."

There was a small compartment hidden inside the shelf it wasn't large, the flash drive was in very snuggly, but it came out with minimal effort on the spy's part. "Whoever thought to hide this in one of the individual shelves was either brilliant, paranoid, or both."

"How often is it actually both?"

Natasha turned to Steve and smiled. "You'd be surprised, we should let the butler look at the contents of the drive."

The soldier nodded in agreement, they should head back they've caused enough commotion here for one night. Plus, the sooner, he could get out of this combat suit the better. The controls for the chameleon mesh had been destroyed in his fight with Bucky. "Sounds good drop me off back where you picked me up and I will change then head back to the Tower."

"Sounds good to me, I hate residential neighborhoods, too many nosey people around and all of the extra lighting makes it difficult to sneak around."

"I guess if you're into that sort of thing. So how hard did Fury try to convince you to tell him what's really going on?"

"Not very, he knew better."

Their business concluded the pair left the crime scene and begin the drive back to Steve's base.

* * *

Senator Jacobson found himself being escorted down a dimly lit corridor. Oh, how he hated coming here the people here always put him on edge. Sadly, it was unavoidable once the news of his visit with Captain Rogers become known to his superiors he had been summoned. He and his escort arrived at a simple looking double door. The escort stopped and without knocking opened the doors and motioned him inside.

He walked through the doors into the room without even acknowledging his escorts, they were beneath him after all. While he had to keep up niceties out there in the real world, while he was here he didn't have to associate with those that were beneath him. He took note of the room as he always did when he could enter it. It was large with monitors displaying everything from global markets, to news feeds from all over the world lining the left wall. The wall directly in front of him had a large tapestry emblazoned with the HYDRA symbol. In the center of the room was a conference table, the table was occupied by four people. At the end of the table sat Dr. Markov, he was a middle-aged scientist from Russia. He was the only person in the room that had been recruited. Everyone else in this room himself included had been born into this organization. All that the senator knew about him was that he had worked on the Russian super soldier project. He had fled the country after the rest of the project team had been murdered. The doctor claims that it was the now infamous Red Room, but the senator thinks that he's crazy. More than likely it was just the government tying up loose ends.

It didn't matter the man was not truly HYDRA it's not in his blood, yet he has a seat at the table. Surely there are qualified scientists that were HYDRA born that were suitable to set at the table, when he was in charge the doctor was going to be his first order of business.

Across from the doctor sat General Drake Fitzgerald, he was a man in his early fifties. He was the head of the organizations military, and he was the senators only friend in the room. To the outside world, he was the United States liaison to NATO, out of everyone that had a seat at this table. The General was without a doubt the most valuable and powerful person in the room.

Next to the General sat Bruce Hammond, he oversaw the money. He was also the second in command of the organization and the heir apparent as the organizations next leader. This fact alone put him and the senator at odds, add to the fact that Hammond is the reason that he is cursed to serve as a senator instead of being here where he belonged. Was more than enough to earn him the senators' eternal hatred, of course the senator had no doubt that the hatred was mutual.

Across from Hammond was a seat that was reserved for whatever head was needed at the current meeting. Most times it was vacant unless the organization was in crisis.

At the very head of the table sat Caitlyn Peirce the current head of the organization and the daughter of the late Alexander Peirce. Funny thing is that she looks nothing like the women that has been pretending to be her for the last thirty years. The woman that the whole world believes is Caitlyn Peirce is nothing more than a pretender. Although given how Peirce's plan for HYDRA got derailed by Steve Rogers. Then decades of HYDRA's secrets getting released onto the internet by the infamous Black Widow. Having someone pretend to be you doesn't seem so paranoid, thankfully this organization hadn't been exposed. No matter how many heads get cut off the heart will always beat.

The senator was quickly brought back to reality once the head of the table began to address him.

"So, Captain Rogers contacts you out of the blue, and arranges a meeting? A meeting in which the topic Mercury Arms just happens to come up. That doesn't seem just a little suspicious to you Greg?"

Caitlyn's tone was cold, and challenging, the senator knew that the wrong answer would have dire consequences for both he and his wife. His ambition was no secret and Pierce would love to have a reason to have him removed. "He contacted me about our charity. What was I supposed to do turn him away? Because that wouldn't have looked at all suspicious."

He was put in a no-win situation by Captain Rogers and everyone at this table knew it. Still even he couldn't deny the precarious situation that the organization currently found itself in. In one afternoon Captain Rogers, had managed to worm his way into the charity and get his foot in the door with Mercury Arms.

From her position at the head of the table Pierce smiled an insincere smile before responding. "That's all true, but it doesn't change the situation that we currently find ourselves in. Multiple facets of this organization have been exposed to Captain Rogers. Even now Sam Wilson is in a meeting with the head of Mercury Arms. Sam Wilson, Steve Rogers friend someone who if he were to disappear would certainly be missed. A meeting that you helped facilitate in a private meeting with Steve Rogers, a meeting that you didn't bother to notify anyone here about beforehand!"

The senator suddenly felt very small as all eyes at the table were on him. He overstepped with Captain Rogers, he saw that now. He should've consulted with leadership before acting a middle man for the contractor and the famous soldier. "So, what now?"

Pierce relaxed in her chair and took on a much calmer demeanor. "We do nothing, there are measures in place just for situations such as these. So, we trust in the protocols already in place, until we're given reason not to. Moving on. Where are we at with Strucker?"

All eyes turned to General Fitzgerald for the answer, this fell under his purview. "I'm afraid it's not good news, between the governments of the world and what passes for S.H.I.E.L.D. these days. It's only a matter of time before Strucker's tenure as head of HYDRA comes to an end. Once you add in the wildcard that is the Avengers it becomes clear that Strucker is fighting a losing battle."

Everyone at the table was upset by the news, but not shocked. With the dwindling resources that HYDRA had to work with on the outside, a prolonged fight was never a winnable scenario.

"Should we intervene? It is our job to make sure that HYDRA never dies." Bruce Hammond voiced a concern that everyone in the room currently shared.

The general was quick to voice his support. "Absolutely, we can't allow this organization to befall the same fate it did after the war. At the very least we need to remove Steve Rogers from the equation."

"We do nothing, making a decision out of fear isn't the right move. Project Tin Man has officially begun production. Right now, that's where our focus should be. We'll continue to monitor these other situations closely and only act if it's warranted." Pierce's tone made it clear that the decision wasn't open for debate. Without saying another word, she got up from the table signaling that the meeting had come to an end.

A few minutes later both the senator and general were sharing a drink in the generals' private office lamenting over Caitlyn's decisions.

"She's wrong Drake and you know it. We should be using our vast resources to help Strucker, not worry about HYDRA's future. What good is a tomorrow if you lose today?"

The general agreed with his friend. Caitlyn Pierce didn't know the plight of a soldier fighting in the trenches. She was a fancy bureaucrat. "You're right Greg something needs to be done. Using resources to openly help Strucker is out of the question. Pierce would never tolerate a blatant act of defiance such as that."

Suddenly the senator was curious about what his friend had in mind. "So, tell me Drake. What's your plan exactly?"

The general smiled and leaned closer as if to avoid getting scolded by the teacher for talking to loudly. "Simple kill Captain Rogers. There is a small HYDRA cell in upstate New York it consists of 20 people. They were keeping an eye on some private school for gifted children. Overnight the school became vacant no one knows where the students and staff went, not a single agent can even remember anything about the faculty or students. Since then the cell has been dormant waiting on orders from Strucker. It would be easy to send them some back channel orders that look like they came from Strucker himself to kill Steve Rogers."

"Wait what was Strucker's interest in a school? More importantly an entire cell suddenly has a bout of amnesia where this school is concerned and no one is investigating?" The senator interrupted his friend before he could finish laying out his plan.

Drake was fond of the senator but sometimes his friends' attention to the insignificant details was frustrating. "Who cares it was probably a S.H.I.E.L.D. front. Point is there is a team on the ground with a Quinjet and advanced weapons that we can use against the Captain. Killing him will give HYDRA a huge morale boost. More importantly it will rob the Avengers of their leader. Let's be honest Stark maybe someone that people follow but he'll never be the leader that Steve Rogers is."

The senator was on-board. "Okay how do we do it?"

"Don't worry Greg I'll handle everything. More scotch?"

The senator nodded his head and watched as his friend poured more scotch in his glass. The two then setback and enjoyed each other's company. Ecstatic in the knowledge that soon HYDRA's greatest enemy would be dead and they would be hailed has heroes.


	7. Chapter 7

Hello everyone I'm sorry the lengthy time between updates. Given how busy I am this will most likely be the last chapter that is this long. It looks as if I am going to have to shorten the chapters to get them out faster. I swear if I ever do another story I'm going to have the whole thing written before I ever upload the first chapter. I would like to thank everyone for their follows and reviews and fear not people come next chapter a lot of questions are going to be answered.

Well here is chapter 7 I hope you all enjoy

I own nothing Disney/Marvel does.

* * *

It was another day at the tower another breakfast, and Steve was once again missing, only this time Romanoff is missing in action as well. All these people not bothering to show up and not even having the decency to call, it was enough to sour the inventors' mood. "First Capsicle all but vanishes from the tower, now it seems his bad behavior has rubbed off on Romanoff. I swear one day I will come in here to an empty table."

Buttering a piece of toast Clint looks at the inventor with a look of exhaustion. "Really Stark? Do you always have to be such a drama queen?"

"Drama queen? Me? Do you realize what goes into these breakfast meals Legolas?" To help emphasize his point the inventor sweeps his hand over the table, as he showcased all the food and drink that was currently laid out on the table.

Everyone currently seated at the table took note of all the food. There were scrambled eggs, toast, biscuits, fruit, oats, pancakes, hash-browns, bacon, various juices, and coffee blends it was the very definition of a spread. It was like this every morning residents of the tower would wake-up and make their way to the dining room. Where this huge amount of food would be waiting on them, always hot and fresh.

"Tony, you do realize that it's entirely too early in the day for this right?" Bruce does his best to reason with the inventor, he knows that Steve's absences have been a source of irritation for the billionaire. At some point though Tony is going to have to come to the realization that he and Steve are polar opposites. The world didn't stop just because they all decided to give this Avenger's business a shot. He had lived here the longest moving in directly after the battle of New York, so he's had the most time to adjust to life with Tony Stark. Before the scientist could offer more words of wisdom, the inventor was calling for J.A.R.V.I.S..

"J get me Capsicle tell him it's an emergency." The inventor was intent on tracking down at least one of the wayward Avenger's.

* * *

Natasha and Steve were stretched out in Natasha's bed, Steve had come to her room after arriving back at the tower last night and the two have been together since. The spy had been surprised when the soldier showed up to her quarters. They were normally much more careful especially since she shares a floor with Maria Hill. She had noticed a change in the soldier since the events the night before. He seemed happier, like a burden had been lifted from his shoulders. She figures it probably has to do with the fact that he knows that Barnes is somewhat alright and with Fury. She doesn't know why but the fact that Fury, and Barnes are working together surprises her. It shouldn't come as a surprise at all given how long she had known Fury, and given the circumstances in which she joined S.H.I.E.L.D..

Still she knew that the search for Barnes had been something that had been weighing heavily on Steve. He'd never admitted it out loud, but she was sure that the soldier blamed himself for the fate that had befallen Barnes. While it was clear that he didn't like the fact that his former best friend and boss were now working together it was clear that he was relieved. If the night that the two of them had spent together was any indication, the spy thought that relieved might not be to most accurate word to describe his mood. She actually wished that they could stay like this all the time just the two of them together no Avengers, no HYDRA, no world crisis, and no ghosts from the past. Of course, that's not the life they live, sometimes she wishes that it were, unfortunately the world doesn't stop because they're enjoying being with the one that you care for.

"You know we really should get out of bed and go join the others. I'm sure there is work to be done, besides it seems wrong for me to keep Captain America from his duties." The spy's tone was nothing but playful.

"Forget about duties we can stay in bed for a little while longer."

Natasha's tone became even more playful. "Forgetting about duties, seems I've corrupted Captain America. I guess this means that Russia wins."

Steve laughed at the claim, in part because it was true. From a certain point of view at least. A Russian had conquered his heart after all. "Well I won't be meeting with J.A.R.V.I.S. until after breakfast. Sam doesn't arrive back until this evening. So as far as I'm concerned we can stay here until then."

They were interrupted by J.A.R.V.I.S. before the spy could reply. "Sir I have Mr. Stark he claims that it's an emergency."

The soldier sighed knowing that the peace he and Natasha were enjoying just came to an end. "Alright put him through J.A.R.V.I.S., audio only please."

"Of course, I must warn you sir that Mr. Stark is in one of his moods."

That wasn't exactly what the soldier had wanted to hear, especially this early in the morning. "Thanks for the info J.A.R.V.I.S.."

"Capsicle, we're all here enjoying a spectacular breakfast courtesy of yours truly. Well all of us except for you and Romanoff. Since it will be next to impossible to track her down, and since you're actually here for a change. How about you come and have breakfast with us civilians." The inventor's tone was an odd mix between sincere and sarcastic.

Knowing that the inventor could go on like this endlessly the soldier decided to relent. When suddenly a thought struck him, he turned to look at Natasha. Silently asking the spy a question, and she was quick to nod her consent. "Fine Stark we'll be down in just a bit."

"Just hurry up would you the food will be cold if you wait much longer. I can't believe that you two are working out before breakfast."

The soldier allowed himself a humorous smile, he was the one that everyone thought of as dense. "We're not working out Stark."

"If you two aren't working out, then what could you possibly be doing?"

Before Steve could respond Natasha spoke up. "You're a genius, figure it out. Now goodbye" Just as quick as they had been interrupted the pair were left in peace.

"What are those two up to?" Curiosity was getting the best of the inventor.

It was Pepper that decided to drop the bombshell on the inventor. After all she'd suspected there was more going on with the soldier and spy than either were willing to admit. Only now she had proof, well not solid proof but the executive figured that the look on Stark's face would be worth it. "You know that they've been dating for a little while, now?"

Suddenly everyone at the table became very quiet and all eyes were on the executive. Then the towers other resident genius spoke up. "I was wondering if anyone else knew about those two?"

Now it was Clint's turn to be confused. "Wait how is it the two of you knew, but the rest of us were oblivious?" The archer was good at noticing things, after all you don't earn the codename Hawkeye by missing what's right in front of you. While he wasn't surprised that Natasha had managed to keep this a secret. He was surprised however that Steve had managed to keep this a secret. Although one glance to the head of the table where Tony Stark currently sit pouting, was all the answer the archer needed as to why they had kept this quiet.

It was then that the soldier and spy entered the room chatting with one another. Either oblivious or indifferent to the fact that all eyes in the room were on them. They made their way to the table and took the only two unoccupied chairs at the table. Natasha took a seat next to Clint, while Steve was sitting next to Tony.

A few minutes pass as everyone ate in silence, when finally, the inventor could take no more. "Okay out with it. How long has this been going on? Why didn't you tell anyone?

The soldier was about to respond when he was cut off by Natasha. "Actually, Stark we never said that we weren't going out."

"That's bullshit Romanoff and you know it." The inventor was getting dangerously close to losing his temper, before anyone could attempt to calm the billionaire down he turned his building ire towards the soldier. "What about you aren't you supposed to be all virtue and honesty. When did lying become so natural for you?"

The soldier finished drinking his juice, cleared his throat before responding. "In truth if you had asked I would've fessed up. In all honesty though I wanted to keep it a secret because I didn't want you finding out. Frankly I didn't particularly care to listen to your teasing remarks."

After the soldiers' brutally honest remark the table became so quiet you could hear a fly buzzing. All eyes in the room were on the inventor waiting for the war of words that they were all sure was about to commence. Instead they were all surprised by the huge grin that appeared on the inventors' face. "Teasing me? Obviously, that will come later. Spangles… Capsicle… Steve, kudos men everywhere and some women will cheer your name. I don't say this often, but I'm proud of you."

The soldier shot the inventor a skeptical look. "You are, why?"

"I can't believe that you have to ask me that Spangles. I mean come on you charmed Romanoff right out of her cat suit."

All Steve could do was shake his head at the billionaires' comments. "See Tony this is the sort of thing I was talking about, and it's the very reason I didn't want you to know about Natasha and myself."

The inventor felt a little pang of hurt although he understood where the soldier was coming from, but in this case, he was being sincere. "I'm serious Spangles, I'm happy for you. A little hurt that you carried out this little tryst in secret, but happy all the same. You know Romanoff tried to get me in the sack a few years back."

"What?!"

"I did not."

"Tony that's not how it happened at all and you know it." Steve, Natasha, and Pepper all said in unison.

The spy could see that Steve was clearly confused as this was the first he was hearing about her and Tony. She was annoyed that the inventor would even make such a claim not that she was surprised. At least Pepper had spoken up to clarify the inventors claim. "First off not once while I was undercover did I try to seduce you. Secondly if I had wanted you then I would've had you. Of course, I'm not surprised that you're misremembering you were drunk for most of the time we spent together."

"He was also being an ass for most of that time as well." Pepper couldn't help but to slip that little remark in, just for good measure.

The inventor decided to pout since it seemed everyone was against him. With a fight avoided everyone continued to eat in a comfortable silence, enjoying each other's company for what felt like the first time in months.

* * *

Sam found himself in perhaps the most luxurious waiting area he'd ever been in. The walls were painted a dark shade of blue, with various pictures scattered throughout the room. There were four televisions mounted in each corner, they were all displaying various news stations. In the center of the room was a kiosk where visitors could sign-in. He'd done that once he had arrived, well shown to the room had been more like it. Once he had arrived at the facility he had to check in at the front gate. He'd then been assigned a parking spot, once he got to his assigned spot a woman had been waiting for him.

She had been rather easy on the eyes, not that you would catch him complaining, or looking. She was a little too nice and accommodating though, it wasn't that people couldn't be nice. In this case though she was trying just a little too hard, Sam decided to make a note of it and bring it up to Steve later. It also didn't escape his notice how tight the security here was. There were guards stationed at every entryway, with security stations at every intersection. Each entry had two guards posted, there were six guards at each security station. If that wasn't bad enough he had seen one patrol of eight guards, and there were also cameras everywhere. Then there was the construction of this place, on his trip to the waiting room he had noticed that all the walls were smooth. There were no pillars or outcroppings no form of cover what-so-ever, even the doors he'd seen had been flush with the wall. This place took its security very seriously that much was obvious. Hell, he'd been in military installations that would've been easier to crack then this place. His mental critique of the facility ended when his tour guide entered the room. "Mr. Wilson the director will see you now. Please come with me."

Sam stood up and did as he was instructed, he was led out of the waiting area and back to the security station. The six guards immediately stood at attention with their arrival. He was starting to feel a little uneasy about this meeting, but did his best not to let it show. "Is there a problem?"

His guide answered the question politely. "No not at all. We just need to get you in the system so that you can meet the director."

"Okay. Do I need to sign something?"

"In a manner of speaking yes. I'm going to need you to do exactly as I say." She flashed Sam the sincerest photogenic smile that she could muster.

Sam nodded signifying that he understood. At that moment one of the guards behind the desk placed a tray on the top of the desk. "Please place your phone, wallet, jewelry, and anything metal in this tray. The items will be returned to you on your way out."

Despite how strange he thought the request was Sam complied. He placed his wallet, car keys, watch, phone, and dog tags in the tray.

He was then handed a lanyard with an I.D. badge attached to it. "Please keep this with you while you're on the premises, return it to the guards at the gate on your way out."

Sam took the lanyard and put it around his neck, again thinking about how tight the security was here. "I understand."

His guide smiled at him once he had secured the lanyard around his neck. "Please wait here Mr. Wilson your escort will be here momentarily."

At this point Sam stopped being confused, he'd gone through enough now to figure out what was going on. Rather it was part of their security measures, or because something was going on here off the books. He was certain that they were trying to keep him off balance. He also noticed that his I.D. badge was chipped, meaning that they could most likely track him anywhere in the building he went. _Sheesh I doubt even Natasha could break into this place. Knowing her she'd probably consider it a challenge and attempt to do so._

"Mr. Wilson. Hello, my name is Rebecca and I'll be escorting you to the director. If you'd please come with me, the director is excited to speak with you."

Sam was instantly at attention, if she was meant to keep him off balance he didn't mind so much. She was just a little taller than him, with raven hair and a great figure. Well there was no rule against enjoying the scenery while on a mission. The former airman fell in step beside his new guide, although he would've preferred to be walking behind her. "Nice facility you have here, and the security is top notch."

"Thank you, we were shooting for nice when we built the place. In truth, we take security very seriously, good security starts at home so to speak. How can we expect potential clients to take us serious if security at our own offices is lacking? As someone who was part of a special project within the military I'd think that you could appreciate that."

He couldn't argue with her logic, if this was in fact connected with HYDRA. They should all be afraid because this place was a well-oiled machine, and that was just what he'd seen on the surface. "I can actually. Truthfully it was one of the concerns that Steve had in potentially working with a contractor."

This got Rebecca's attention. "I'm surprised that Captain Rogers is interested in working with a private security company."

"Well there was a lot about all of this that's still a foreign concept to him. He understands the need for more personnel especially if something the scale of New York were to happen again." Sam figured this little tidbit wouldn't hurt. After all Steve had voiced this concern to him more than once. He was also concerned about his ability to lie convincingly to a possible HYDRA spy. Natasha was fond of pointing out how bad both he and Steve were at the art of deceit. Frankly he was amazed that Steve has been able to keep this whole investigation under-wraps.

"I understand, I suppose this sort of business wasn't exactly big back in the 40's." As she said this the ding of an arriving elevator interrupting the pairs conversation.

As they boarded the elevator Rebecca keyed in the combination for the top floor. Once the combination was keyed in a computerized voice confirmed their destination as the director's office. Once the elevator begins to move she decided to strike up a bit more conversation. "So, what's Captain Rogers like?"

The former airman smiled to himself, he was surprised that this topic hadn't come up sooner. The women always seemed to have questions about Steve. When he'd first met the famed soldier, he'd thought that he was clueless as to all the flirtations that women sent his way. A few months into their search for Barnes he had learned just how wrong he had been about Steve's ability to pick up on all the signals that women sent his way. "You know all of the things that you've seen and read about Captain America?"

"Yeah, we studied him in school, my father also had some old Captain America films that my grandfather owned. Then of course there was all of the news after he was found in the ice."

Sam wasn't surprised by her answer Steve was famous before he was frozen, he'd only became more famous while he was frozen. Then after S.H.I.E.L.D. found him, and thawed him out he'd reached un-heard of heights of fame. Then came the battle of New York and the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D. again Steve's star had risen if that was even possible. Despite his friends' celebrity status, it always amazed him how often people would fail to recognize him when he was out of uniform. When people did recognize him they treated him differently, which was something that he knew his friend hated. "All of that information doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of who Steve Rogers is."

Before his escort could offer up her reply the elevator announced that they were at their stop. The doors opened and Sam was led into a spacious room. The room itself was decorated with various battle and war memorabilia. There was a set of medieval knights' armor on the left of the entryway, and on the right side a feudal shogun armor. There was a world war II era rifle mounted on the wall as well as swords from various cultures. There were also framed pictures from wars all throughout history going all the way back to the crusades. Some were painted, some were black and white, and others had a more modern look to them. There were also televisions all turned to different news stations, some domestic, while others were foreign. There were also no windows in the entire room, the room was also very well lit. At the far end of the room was a large desk, with some comfortable looking chairs positioned in front of the desk. Behind the desk sat a middle-aged man who had raven colored hair that was beginning to gray in places.

As the pair reached the desk the man stood and moved to greet them, once he was in front of the desk he extended his hand to Sam. "Mr. Wilson, it's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Josh Matthews, I'm the ringmaster of this circus."

Sam shook the other man's hand before returning his greeting. "Thank you for meeting with me Director Matthews, I know that this meeting was made on short notice."

"Please have a seat. Would you like something to drink?" The director gestured to the chairs in front of the desk as he took his seat behind it.

Taking a seat, the former airman decided that some water sounded good. "Thank you, and actually some water sounds good." Instantaneously it seemed a bottle of chilled water appeared in front of him courtesy of Rebecca. Who then promptly excused herself from the meeting.

"So, Mr. Wilson I must admit I was surprised to hear that Captain Rogers was interested in working with a private security firm such as ours." The director got straight to the point he didn't believe in beating around the bush.

Sam had expected the response he and Steve had rehearsed things that Sam was supposed to say during his meeting. The pair had also discussed topics that might come up and what he should do if that happens. "In truth Steve has no experience with private contractors. He was hoping to get some information, I on the other hand have been on the ground with contractors in the past. Since his schedule is so busy, and due to my experience, I told Steve that I'd be more than happy to take the meeting for him."

"I see. So, what exactly is Captain Rogers concerned about?" The director was genuinely curious about the super soldiers' concerns. Until just a couple of days ago no one in this industry had any idea that the great Captain Rogers was looking for a private security firm.

"Well as you know the Avengers are a small team. Steve is smart he knows at some point the Avengers are going to be called into action where civilians are going to be in the line of fire. He's considering options to put extra boots on the ground to ensure the safety of any civilians inside of the theatre of operations." Sam leaned back in his chair and took a sip of the water he was holding after his lengthy explanation, partially for added effect, and partially because he was thirsty after all this talking.

"I see that makes a lot of sense especially since S.H.I.E.L.D. is no longer around to provide them with logistical support. How about I give you a real tour of our operation and you can ask me any question you may have over lunch?"

Sam liked the idea as it would hopefully give him access to more information, that he could then relay back to Steve, "Sounds like a good idea."

With the airman's approval of the plan both men got up and made their way to the elevator to begin the tour.

* * *

Steve was in his quarters working on the investigation with J.A.R.V.I.S. so far it was slow going. The thumb drive that they'd procured last night was so heavily encrypted that J.A.R.V.I.S. was having trouble cracking it. Which told the soldier all he needed to know about the circumstances of Mr. Mercer's death. _This is so frustrating I'm getting nowhere, at this rate I'll never be able to expose HYDRA._ "What am I doing wrong J.A.R.V.I.S.?"

"I'm afraid that I don't understand sir."

"No matter what information we go through, I can't form a solid HYDRA link. Other than the founding members of Halo International. We've connected Halo to senator Jacobson, and we've also connected Halo to Samson Biotech through the charity work that they do with Halo International." That last tidbit was a recent discovery. The A.I. had discovered the connection while the soldier and spy had been at Albert Mercer's house. Turns out that Samson Biotech provides millions of dollars' worth of free medication, and medical supplies to Halo International's charity efforts every year. The company also had contracts to supply the U.S. Military, and they'd had a contract with S.H.I.E.L.D.. The soldier didn't find that last bit of information out of the ordinary. Even back during the war the allies had used companies to help provide supplies.

While there are too many connections between these companies to be a coincidence. The soldier knows that he's still missing something and he has a feeling that it's something big. He still didn't know how Mercury Arms factored into this whole equation either. Hopefully Sam would be able to shed some light on that, when he gets back. _Was it this hard for you Howard? Somehow, I doubt it given how smart you were._ While Halo wasn't a new company, he no longer thought that this was simply HYDRA rebuilding. He was beginning to think it was more than that, and given how things normally worked out chances are he was probably right. This was going nowhere, what he needed was a break. Looking at the clock he realized it was lunch time. "J.A.R.V.I.S. take a break I'm going to go to the cafeteria and grab some food."

The A.I. was emotionless in its response. "Thank you, sir, but I could continue working I don't actually need a break."

"Too bad J.A.R.V.I.S. captains order we're both taking a break." The soldier didn't wait for a response he was up and out the door before the A.I. could reply.

* * *

Sam and the director were in a small ATV heading back to the main facility their tour nearly complete. Sam had seen quite a bit the tour had lasted over two hours and in that time, he had gone from awe struck to paralyzing fear. If this company had thrown in with HYDRA then they all had a reason to be afraid. About half-way through the tour the pair had taken a break for lunch. Now they were on their way back to the main facility, so that they could conclude the tour and Sam could go and catch his flight back to New York.

The facility was within eyesight when all the sudden the vehicle shook violently to the point that it almost turned over on its side, and begin moving to the side. No longer were they moving forward instead they were sliding towards a cement barricade. As quickly as everything happened it came to a sudden stop.

The director was the first to recover. "Mr. Wilson are you alright?"

The former airman was quick to respond now that he was sure that they weren't under attack. "Yeah I was just caught off guard. You alright?"

The director nodded his head in affirmation. Both men were scanning the area to see that had hit them. They both noticed a small group running towards them. Sam noticed that they were all dressed in black fatigues, with some sort of rifle hanging from a strap around their shoulder. A woman at the front of the group is the one that addressed them. "We're sorry director one of the repulsor rifles triggers malfunctioned. Instead of switching into safety mode it fired instead, hitting your vehicle. Are either of you hurt?"

The director was more than annoyed, but he did his best not to let it show. "Why are you practicing with them here you were all supposed to be at assault range three for the battle drill."

Again, it was the woman that spoke up. "Well sir it turns out that there was a gas leak at first companies barracks adjacent to the course. The techs said that the repulsor rifles could cause an explosion, so I moved us to this range since it wasn't scheduled to be in use."

The director was so angry he was practically shaking. "Dismiss your team, return the rifles to the armory, and then go to my office now."

The director then turned his attention to Sam. "Mr. Wilson I must apologize. I…"

Sam knew he wasn't supposed to see what he just saw. He's not a spy like Natasha, but he's not stupid. He had no doubt that he was in dangerous territory now and he needed to play it cool. "Wow I can't believe that the military finally cracked repulsor tech. It says a lot about your firm that you're being allowed to help test it. I know I can't tell Steve, but this definitely tells me what my recommendation should be."

The director breathed a sigh of relief, seeing that he'd been given an out he played along. "Thank you for your understanding. Now while don't we head back so I can give you the information for Captain Rogers and then you can be on your way."

"Sounds good." Sam knew even as he agreed that everything had changed and not in a small way. The sooner he got back and told Steve the better.

* * *

Everyone was seated in the common area after their evening meal. Tony had spent all of dinner attempting to pry details of Steve's and Natasha's relationship from them, with no luck much to the billionaire's disappointment. Now everyone was just sitting around enjoying themselves, however Tony just couldn't help himself as he was presented with a perfect opportunity to get in a friendly jab to the soldier. "Sure, is nice that all of us could be present here tonight. You know since some of us haven't been around a lot lately." The inventor made sure that he was staring at the soldier to emphasize the point.

The inventor was waiting on the soldier to respond instead he was seated next to Romanoff and he was in some kind of daze. It was clear not only to the inventor, but all present that while the soldier was physically here his mind was elsewhere. Everyone was aware that sometimes the soldier was prone to relive memories from the war.

Natasha however knew what the problem was and it had nothing to do with the past, and everything to do with the present. The spy placed her hand on his forearm to get his attention so that he would hear what she had to say. "His flight could've been delayed, or he could be caught in traffic, or both. So, quit worrying Sam's a big boy and he can take care of himself."

The inventor suddenly became annoyed. "Really why is that guy coming back here for?"

"Tony! Be nice." Pepper was quick to scold the inventor once his tone turned sour. She then turned towards the soldier hoping to smooth things over. "Will Sam be staying in New York?"

The soldier nodded as he went on to explain Sam's continuing presence. "For a couple of days at least. He's helping me wrap up this bit of business that I've been struggling to handle."

"You ever going to tell the rest of us what's going on with your so-called business?" This time the inventors tone was full of concern. Despite what some people may think he liked Steve. Thought of him as a friend, the soldier was also a link to his father. Had things been different he might've grown up with Steve as his uncle. Still the soldier was becoming to wrapped up in whatever he had going on at the moment.

"I will Tony just as soon as I finish wrapping it up, you have my word."

"Okay that's all I needed to hear. Look spangles it will be easier on everyone if I arrange one of the guest quarters here at the tower for your friend. That way maybe this will all get done faster."

The soldier knew that the billionaire was sincere in his offer. Tony maybe called many things, but greedy will never be one of them. "Thank you, Tony."

Pepper decided to seal the deal and stop while everyone was ahead. "Good I'll make the arrangements, I need to go and get some work done tonight anyway so I'll be ready to fly out to California for the stock holders meeting in the morning." Without giving either party a chance to protest the executive moved from her spot by Tony and left the common area.

"Well that was civil, thank goodness for Pepper Potts CEO and peacemaker." Clint was hoping that his statement would ease any lingering tension in the room. Although the archer had to admit that has far as Tony and Steve arguments go that one had been civil. His statement clearly had the desired effect because the entire room had erupted in laughter.

The group was interrupted by the towers A.I. "Captain Rogers, Mr. Wilson has returned and is on his way to your quarters. He is asking to speak with you he says it's urgent."

"Thank you J.A.R.V.I.S." Steve stood up and begin to make his way to the elevator so caught up in the moment that he didn't even bid the others farewell.

"Wait I'm coming with you." Natasha stood up and walked right past him onto the elevator without giving him the chance to protest.

It only took a couple of minutes for the pair to make it back to Steve's quarters. To the soldier however it seemed like an eternity, when they arrive Sam was already inside pacing back and forth like a caged animal. You could see Sam relax once he laid eyes on the pair. Sam stopped his pacing and took a seat in one of Steve's chairs. "Steve you'd better hope that you're wrong about Mercury Arms. Because if you're not we're all in big trouble."

The soldier and spy moved and took a seat on the sofa so that they would be facing Sam. As soon as they did the airman immediately looked alarmed. "I'm sorry I spoke without thinking."

The soldier was confused but Natasha wasn't any other time she'd enjoy herself at Sam's expense, but this sounded serious so she decided to put his mind at ease. "It's fine Steve filled me in on the HYDRA investigation, mostly. He didn't tell me who the friend is that he's helping out, but I know all about the investigation."

Understanding finally dawned on the soldier. "Yeah it's fine Sam I took your advice. Now tell me what happened, I want to know everything."

The airman nodded. "Alright, well first off let's start with their security…"


	8. Chapter 8

Hello everyone, here is the next chapter of the story. I've gone over it for any errors,if any slipped through I'm sorry and I'll fix them if I find them. This chapter is a bit of a change for the story as it only features HYDRA characters. It also marks the beginning of act II of this story. I would like to thank everyone who has followed and Favorited this story and for all of the reviews as well. To those who have messaged me privately my only answer is this you will get all of the details of Howard's message to Steve very soon sometime within the next three chapters. :)

Anyways here is chapter 8 and I have nor will I ever own Avengers

* * *

Dr. Markov was hard at work in his lab, he preferred the work in his lab over dealing with people. The one exception being his assistant Emily, well as far as the outside world is concerned she's his assistant. When in truth she's much more, she was his savior, protector, and friend. It had been through her intervention that he'd been saved from the Red Room agent. When he'd been approached about joining this organization she had been his one and only condition.

Now they looked out for one another, which was a good thing since they couldn't count on anyone here to look out for them. The speaker buzzed to life with the voice of his assistant. Putting an end to his musings. "Doctor Miss Pierce is on her way in, she insisted on seeing you, sir."

"Thank you, Emily, please go and take a break." The doctor moved from the station he was currently working at to go and greet his leader. Only to discover once he turned around that she was already in the lab leaned up against a table of specimens.

"I assume that telling her to take a break was a code." The director turned from the scientist and made her way to a small seating area. Without an invitation, she took a seat on one of two lounge chairs that occupied the room. They were separated by a small coffee table that had seen heavy use if the stains on its surface were any indication. With a simple motion of her hand, she asked the doctor to join her.

The doctor was quick to take a seat, not wanting to anger the director. She had the ability to make his life very difficult, and he couldn't afford any problems with his research. "Miss Pierce, is there something that I can help you with?"

The director leans back in her chair, she could see that her impromptu visit had rattled the scientist. She let him sit with his discomfort for a minute before beginning her line of questioning. "Samson Biotech, please tell me why you funneled research through that company."

A look of guilt flashed across the doctor's features, the look was quickly replaced with a timid smile. "Emily, please bring me the red tablet. So that I may show the director what I've been working on." The doctor saw no need to keep the pretense up the director made it quite clear that she knew he and Emily had spoken in code.

Almost as soon as the doctor had spoken his request a red tablet was being placed in his hands. The director was shocked, at how quiet the doctor's assistant was. She was careful not to let the shock show on her face, however. Even with the ambient noise that was present in the lab the director knew that she should've been able to hear the assistant. Especially since she'd been wearing heels.

Unlike the doctor who looked like every egghead stereotype rolled into one. Caitlyn wondered what else the assistant was hiding, under her always large and baggy clothes. The director made a mental note to pay closer attention to the girl from now on. She was pulled from her thoughts as a holographic image appeared between herself and the doctor. She knew instantly what it was, it was the super soldier serum. The very thing that had created HYDRA's greatest enemy. "Why am I looking at an image of the super soldier serum doctor?"

The doctor met her question with a pleased smile. "Good you know what this is. As you know governments all over the world have been attempting to recreate the serum since the 40's. It is however sadly, a waste of time."

The director was intrigued by the doctors' declaration. HYDRA itself had even perfected its own version of the serum. In fact, various heads of HYDRA had made use of the results of that serum over the decades following World War II, her late father had been among them. Of course, even HYDRA's infamous Winter Soldier had paled in comparison to Captain America. Still, this was a bold statement that the doctor was making, she had a responsibility to hear him out. "Alright, doctor you have my undivided attention."

Markov smiled brightly which was something the scientist rarely did. "Thank you, Miss Pierce. Now as you know for the past seven decades people have been trying to recreate the serum. With HYDRA coming the closest to producing a soldier that was on Captain Rogers level. The problem is that the serum is only one part of a three-part equation."

To help emphasize his point the doctor keyed in a command on his tablet. After doing so the holographic image between the two changed. The new image depicted a math problem, but instead of numbers, there were images with question marks underneath them. "The first part of the equation is, of course, the serum itself."

As he spoke the holographic image changed to a large beaker. The same beaker that was depicted in the math problem just made larger for effect.

"Now if you set the Erskine serum as the standard to gauge all other super soldier serums. Then you will see that not one comes close to meeting that standard, let alone exceeding it. Quite frankly it's a standard that can't be met." He paused before continuing, allowing the information to sink in. Truth be told he was enjoying himself it wasn't often that people wanted to hear his explanations.

"What about taking the serum from Captain Rogers blood directly?" Not that the director thought that it was an option. Containing Steve Rogers so that HYDRA scientist could extract the serum from his blood. Just wasn't a practical solution.

The doctor understood what the director was asking, he himself had once had similar thoughts. "Yes, we could separate the serum from his blood. To get enough serum to make even one super soldier would require a great deal of blood. Far too much for us to take at once even for a man of the Captains endurance. We would have to extract the blood over a long period to make sure he didn't die before we got what we needed. It could be done but I wouldn't recommend it as a course of action."

Caitlyn had figured his response would be something along those lines. Still, it never hurt to ask and get an opinion, especially since the doctor has clearly given this problem a lot of thought. "Please continue doctor."

He keyed in another command before continuing. Replacing the holographic image of a beaker with that of the letter C. "Let's say for this discussion that we did have the Erskine serum. It would still be useless to us. The serum will not work without a catalyst. Without a catalyst, whoever receives the serum will just be given a series of painful injections. It's my understanding that someone destroyed the original project rebirth files around the time that S.H.I.E.L.D. was formed. Which means we could search for decades without knowing what causes the serum to change an individual. In fact, I'm certain that the only person alive who knows how to activate the serum is Captain Rogers himself."

This wasn't news to the director, but it did put things into perspective for her. She'd never actually considered the amount of time that would have to go into the process if they ever managed to duplicate the serum. "There was a third part to your equation doctor. Please continue."

The doctor did as he was instructed keying in another set of commands. The image changed this time it was the outline of a person. "Let's say that we had both the serum and the catalyst. We would still need a suitable candidate, a procedure such as this could cause psychological issues if the wrong person were to undergo it." His explanation complete, the doctor keyed in a command to deactivate the hologram, so that he was face to face with the director.

A silence had fallen between the two of them, all that could be heard were the sounds of the lab. The director was digesting all the information that the doctor had just relayed to her. "Okay. Now tell me what this has to do with you using Samson Biotech?"

The doctor knew that the director wasn't going to let that go. Truth be told he would've preferred to wait until his research was finished before presenting his idea. The doctor begins sweating, the director's rage was well known. If she didn't like his answer things would get ugly very quickly.

Caitlyn could tell that the doctor didn't want to share what he was working on. She could see the conflict playing out on the doctors' face at this very moment. Which was sad since she liked Markov. He was smart, but also a mess his family had been killed by the KGB as had his fellow researchers. Even though he claims to anyone that will listen that it was the infamous Red Room that had killed his family and fellow researchers. Either version was believable to her after all weirder things had been known to happen. Especially given how governments all over the world love to cover up any perceived loose ends. Deciding that the silence had gone long enough she spoke to the doctor. "I'm waiting for an answer doctor."

The tone of her voice told the doctor that his time had run out. He was suddenly a ball of knots, hoping that he hadn't overstepped with his research. "As you know we have exactly three vials of Captain Rogers blood which was smuggled out of S.H.I.E.L.D. So instead of attempting to duplicate the serum. I suggest we focus our task on making the best use of the serum we have available to us."

Now the director found herself more than just intrigued. It sounded as if he'd found a way to use the Captains blood to HYDRAs benefit. "Exactly how much serum do we have?"

"By my calculations, if we were to separate the serum from the vials of blood that we have. We could get half a vial worth of serum."

The director did nothing to hide her disappointment at the doctors' claim. That wasn't enough serum to do anything with, she was bordering on rage. Markov had better have a good explanation if he wanted to keep his life. "What are we supposed to do with so little serum?!"

The doctor recoiled at the directors' outburst. "Please Miss Pierce hear me out, I assure you that's more than enough serum."

She stared daggers at the doctor, her face was an angry scowl as she spoke her command. "Explain."

Markov slowly nodded. "The answer is simple, we enhance something smaller, something that we wouldn't need a large amount of serum for. Such as a virus."

Caitlyn sit up straight she wasn't a scientist, but she suspected that she knew where Markov was going with this. She wasn't at all sure it was a place anyone needed to go. "You're talking about biological weapons, aren't you?" She did her best to keep any alarm out of her voice. This was something that no one since the Red Skull had considered. Even the Skull hadn't turned to biological weapons. Although he may well have if he'd lived long enough.

"Yes, ma'am that's exactly what I'm talking about. Using the Erskine serum to enhances viruses that we can use as weapons. Imagine something such as Ebola enhanced with the same serum that made Captain Rogers, or a flu virus, or smallpox. That's why I needed to use Samson Biotech. I needed access to datasets that I didn't have. So that I could run simulations with how individual viruses would react to being fused with the serum." The doctor knew that there was no turning back now. He'd come this far either she would approve of his research or she wouldn't. Still, he would've preferred to have finished his research before presenting it to his benefactor.

The director knew that what Markov had just told her was game-changing on multiple levels. Still, all of this sounds more theoretical than hard science. She needed to keep her focus on project Tin Man. Still, she'd underestimated the good doctor it seems. Here he was potentially giving them a weapon without equal. She needed to know everything the doctor did, no matter how powerful of a weapon this could end up being. The dangers it posed even to HYDRA's future were too great for her not to be informed. "Okay you're going to start at the very beginning, I want to know everything that led you to this point in your research."

Markov relaxed at the directors' command. "Very well. Three years ago…"

* * *

The senator walked into his home, it was smaller than he deserved, but perfectly in line with what a working couple would have in D.C. Of course, he only really spends his nights here, his wife Rebecca however often worked from home. As such most of the décor in the home was of her choosing, most of it was antique with some reproduction paintings. Even the furniture was classic looking in its design, there were also a few family pictures scattered throughout the house. Just like him, his wife Rebecca was also a member of the Heart of HYDRA.

She wasn't nearly as high up the chain of command as he was. Her work, however, was very important. She worked in web design, more specifically she worked in internet marketing. The internet was a powerful tool, especially when you place hidden messages in the ads that the whole world sees on the internet. It was a powerful tool that made the masses more accepting of HYDRA's message. Like the senator his wife had been born into HYDRA, their marriage had been arranged as were many marriages within the Heart. While their marriage had been arranged Rebecca had been a good wife, he'd even grown to care about her a great deal. When he was sat at the head of the table he would move her somewhere more fitting for her talents. After all the wife of the leader of an organization such as the Heart of HYDRA didn't work for other people.

As he walked into the living area he saw his wife, who promptly moved from the computer to greet him. They quickly embraced, despite the rigors of their jobs they found comfort in one another. It was Rebecca that spoke first. "How was your day? Make any new laws?"

"No of course not, nothing is ever going to get done. They're all too busy fighting amongst themselves." There was just a hint of sarcasm in his voice, that would've been missed by anyone other than his wife.

"I know you hate it, but it's your duty. You couldn't very well refuse HYDRA when they gave you the position." She chooses her words carefully as she knew that this was a sore subject for her husband.

"Yes, gave me the position so I would be out of Caitlyn's way." The words rolled off his tongue as pure venom.

Rebecca wasn't shocked at his tone, she knew that there was no love lost between the current head of the table and her husband. Still, he had to be careful about what he said and who he said it in front of. She felt a change of topic was in order. While she hated to bring this up now that his mood had soured. It was important that he receive the news now since it related to HYDRA. "I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Strucker lost another facility today."

The Senator became incensed at the news, another HYDRA facility lost. More loyal members lost, this had gone past the point of being ridiculous. "That's three facilities in two weeks. To make matters worse Caitlyn knows that Strucker is losing, yet she does nothing to help him! As if that wasn't bad enough the Avengers haven't even gotten involved yet."

"Calm down there's not much the director can do without exposing the organization."

He looked at his wife like she'd grown a second head. "That's the point. What good is it if we keep the Hearts vast resources hidden. Hell, the first batch of Project Tin Man soldiers is set to be delivered by the end of the month. Caitlyn should use them to take the fight to our enemies. She won't of course, she's already considering a new head to replace Strucker."

"You know why, and you know that she's right." She kissed him once more before releasing him from her embrace. "I hate to do this, but I've really got to leave for New York or I'm going to miss my first meeting tonight. Why don't you go into the kitchen and get yourself something to eat? I made a lasagna it's in the fridge. I'll only be gone a few days. Maybe when I get back we can have a serious conversation about Miss Pierce?"

"Of course, my love." Feeling like a fool once he realized that they'd been embracing while he rambled on for the past five minutes.

He escorted his wife to her car and loaded up her bags. He then walked back to the house and waved her goodbye. He watched as she drove away knowing that he would miss her. While theirs had been an arranged marriage she had a way of focusing him that no one else possessed. He swore not for the first time that she deserved a higher place inside of the Heart and when he was in charge she would get it.

He'd barely gotten back into the house good before his phone rang. He knew from the ring that it was his HYDRA phone. When that phone rang you were expected to drop what you were doing and answer it. Looking at the caller I.D. he saw that it was General Fitzgerald. "Drake, is everything alright?"

"Greg everything is fine. I'm calling to let you know that it's in motion."

The senator knew exactly what his friend was referring to. The plan to kill Steve Rogers that they'd discussed a couple of days ago. "How long?"

"Soon. Sometime within the next 48 hours is all I know. Anything else would've required a more hands-on approach. I think we both know that our beloved director would've loved that. Anyways I must go I'm meeting with the Skovian delegation. Take care, Greg." With that, the call was ended almost as abruptly as it had begun.

His friends' words made him happier than he'd been in a while. Too think sometime within the next two days Steve Rogers would be dead. He and Drake would be hailed as heroes and even Caitlyn Pierce would have to give them their due. This was going to be a great week for HYDRA.


	9. Chapter 9

I'm sorry, at this point going a long period is just going to be normal. I do apologize for the delay. A word of warning though I haven't even had the chance to start on chapter 10 yet. It will take me a while as it will involve a lengthy action scene. Something I have little experience writing. Also things are going to be coming to a head in the next couple of chapters so stay tuned.

I would also like to thank everyone for the follows and favorites, as well as all of the reviews. Well here is the next chapter hope you all enjoy.

BTW Disney still owns the Avengers and all of that legal talk.

* * *

Natasha had spent the last two hours sitting with both Steve and Sam. Listening to the airman recount the events that had taken place at Mercury Arms. While the security sounded like it would be fun to crack, it was the last tidbit that the spy found the most disturbing. They were experimenting with repulsor based weapons. Of course, she had no reason to doubt Sam's claim, if HYDRA had access to that level of tech then things were about to get a lot more complicated.

"You know that you're lucky that you were there on Steve's behalf otherwise you'd most likely be dead now."

Sam looked at the spy completely aware of how true her words were. "I know that. What I don't understand is why that mattered at all? I mean the HYDRA I've come to know would be just as likely to kill me because I'm Steve's friend."

"It's because they're trying to keep all of this a secret. Maintaining that secret is clearly their priority. This way once their enemies discover what they're working on it will be too late to do anything about it." It was the first time that the soldier had spoke since Sam had begun to recount the events of his meeting. Even now he was staring off into the distance.

Natasha knew the look that the soldier had all too well. She'd become acquainted with it when they'd worked together at S.H.I.E.L.D. it was the look he had when he was trying to work things out. Even she had to admit that there were things here that just didn't add up. She hated not having answers. "Steve what are you thinking?"

She'd learned very quickly that the soldier needed to be engaged when he got like this. Thankfully she didn't have to wait long for a response.

The soldier turned to address the spy directly. "It doesn't make any sense. Nearly every government in the world is freezing HYDRA assets left and right. So how did they come up with the extra money to develop next-gen weapons tech? If I'm being totally honest, I don't think this is as simple as HYDRA rebuilding. It doesn't add up with what Ho… It just doesn't line up with what my friend told me."

The spy didn't miss the near slip by the soldier, he was going to great lengths to protect this friend. Very soon the two of them would be discussing who this friend was. Whomever this person was they clearly meant a lot to Steve, so much so that he'd shut the entire team out. That conversation could wait, however, as they clearly had more pressing concerns now. "Okay, then that puts us back at square one. Which isn't a good thing considering now we're dealing with next-gen weapons tech. That based on what Sam said is well past the prototype stage. We also still need to figure out how and if the dead researcher plays into all of this."

Sam felt that they were over complicating the problem, so he decided he would ask the obvious question. "Are we sure that they just didn't buy the tech from Stark? I mean the man did use to be in the weapons business, perhaps he sold some things before he got out."

The spy was the first to speak up in defense of the billionaire. "No Stark keeps a tight leash on the tech that goes into his armors. He wouldn't even share it with the government. In fact, the only time any of the tech left his possession was back in 2010 when…"

The spy stopping mid-sentence only heightened the concern coming from her cohorts. They both knew to let her work out whatever was going on in her head out on her own. Which only took a few seconds but for the two of them, it seemed like three years when the spy next spoke. "I think I know how they got ahold of the tech."

"How?"

"Don't keep us waiting."

Both Steve and Sam responded in unison.

"In 2010 I was undercover at Stark Industries, during that time Stark's best friend James Rhodes took one of Tony's suits. After taking it, the government contracted Justin Hammer to upgrade it with additional weapons. Which he and Ivan Vanko reverse engineered to make their own armors."

"I remember that it was all over the news the whole thing went down at the Stark Expo that year." Sam was beyond excited finally they were making some progress.

Steve was glad that they were making progress, but this only serves to raise even more questions. The soldier was getting frustrated he wanted to do something, he hated just sitting around while HYDRA was out there planning god knows what. "Okay, we have a potential source for the tech. Now we need to figure out the how."

"Not a how, but a who." The spy was quick to pipe up.

When no one spoke, she took it as a sign that she should continue. "After the OP was over S.H.I.E.L.D came in and cleaned up. They made sure Stark got his tech back, took Hammer into custody, and wiped the servers of all the stolen tech blueprints that were stored there. Also, to make sure that S.H.I.E.L.D wasn't linked with the events what-so-ever. Normally this would've been Coulson's job, however, he was called to New Mexico with Clint before events came to a head. Instead, the task was assigned to Sitwell."

Sam was shocked, almost livid at the revelation. "You mean the same Sitwell that was a HYDRA agent that the Winter Soldier took out in my backseat? That Sitwell!"

The soldier didn't like his friend's tone, he especially didn't like that it was directed at Natasha. "Calm down Sam it's not her fault."

No one in the room missed the soldier's tone, it was the same one he used when he when he was in full Captain America mode.

"I'm sorry." The airman sighed and leaned back in his chair, he was exhausted. In truth, he was a little annoyed at Natasha's lapse in memory, but it's not like he could blame her really. The events happened nearly five years ago and at the time she didn't know that Sitwell was HYDRA or that HYDRA still existed even.

"It's fine Sam it is an important detail. Fact is I haven't thought about that OP for a few years now. One of the pitfalls of being a spy. Once a job is done you don't look back, the people you met and the things you did while on that job. Have the ability to compromise you if you dwell on them, in fact, once a job is done you should never have to think about it again unless it comes back to bite you in the ass."

Sam took in the spy's words, in truth he'd never given much thought to the life of a spy. He suddenly had a new understanding for Natasha. "No offense, but that sounds like a bad way to live."

She smiled despite herself at Sam's comment. "You're not the first to point that out. Back on topic have we had any luck with the flash drive from Albert Mercer's house?"

"I'm afraid not Miss Romanoff. It's using a encryption that isn't in my database." The A.I. sounded genuinely upset at not being able to finish the task assigned to it.

The spy was curious there weren't a whole lot of encryptions that J.A.R.V.I.S. wouldn't be able to crack. "You boys mind if I take a run at it?"

"I have no problem with it, maybe you'll have better luck with it." The soldier reached onto the coffee table to grab the drive and handed it to the spy.

Once the soldier handed her the drive she decided that it was time to turn in for the night. She also thought that the two soldiers might enjoy a little time without her around. While she knew that Steve would never say such a thing to her. She knew how important his friendship with Sam was. "Well I'm going to turn in for the night, you two don't go causing any trouble."

Both soldiers in the room attempted to look hurt but failed miserably.

The spy and soldier exchanged a quick kiss and then she excused herself from the room. With the encrypted flash drive now in her possession.

* * *

Spacious and extravagant were the only words that Rebecca could use to describe the lobby that she currently found herself in. While there was security present, there had been nothing to prevent her from walking in through the front door. She now found herself getting searched by security so, she must give Stark that much at least. Of course, she was standing in a machine while it scanned her. A machine can be fooled if he wanted better security at the home of the Avengers then, it should be a protocol for the guards to search unannounced visitors.

The machine beeped signifying that the scanning was finished. The guard motioned her forward. She was escorted to the security desk where a guard politely asked her to state the reason for her visit. "I'm here to see Captain Rogers. Tell him it's Rebecca Jacobson and I need to speak with him about my husband Senator Greg Jacobson. He'll know who you're talking about."

The guards talked amongst themselves for just a moment before one moved to a phone, picked it up and dialed a number. He was on the phone for a whole five minutes before walking back to the guard at the desk and whispering something in her ear. After the guards' brief exchange both guards looked at her with a mixture of awe and surprise. "Captain Rogers will be down to greet you shortly. Until then you may have a seat over there."

Rebecca smiled both at the guards' surprise at the fact that Rogers was going to see her. Also, at the fact that if HYDRA had known it would be this easy to get access to the Captain he would've been dead already. "Thank you."

She was both quick and polite in her reply, before moving to take a seat and wait for the Captain. After all, it was too late to turn back now. As soon as she was caught on camera entering Avengers Tower she knew that her life with HYDRA and Greg were over.

* * *

Fury wasn't happy Bucky could tell by the fact that he'd been woken up and ordered to the director's office. Granted it was still early only 7:00 p.m. but he'd taken to turning in early every since getting his mind back. He had discovered that the more sleep he got the easier it was when he had to talk to the S.H.E.I.L.D. therapists.

He had to admit that he was surprised to find the hacker Skye had also been summoned to the director's office. This was most definitely not good news. "What's the matter, sir?"

"We have a problem. We've hit a dead end on our investigation into Samson Biotech. Whoever murdered Albert Mercer did a good job because we have no leads there either. I've pulled out undercover agent out of the company for fear that she may have been compromised. I want the two of you to go over everything that we've got. Look to see if maybe something has been missed, or if there's something that we need to revisit. People, this needed to be done yesterday." Fury was quick and a little harsh with his directive.

Barnes was the only one that knew the truth about project Daedalus. That the project was trying to recreate the serum that turned Steve Rogers into Captain America. Only himself, Alexander Peirce, and the council had known what the project really was. When S.H.I.E.L.D. fell all the research plus the only sample of Rogers, blood that they'd managed to take before they discovered that he was alive had vanished.

"Sir, what if we don't find anything?" Bucky felt the need to ask it was clear that Fury felt that time was running out to put a stop to this. He had to admit that he didn't like the idea of an army of people with Steve's abilities running around loose in the world.

Fury took note of the soldier's question, he knew how perceptive Barnes was. He also understood that Barnes knew at this point they were grasping at straws. "If you find nothing reach out to Rogers, he clearly knows more then he was letting on. Otherwise, he and Romanoff never would've shown up to Albert Mercer's house."

Bucky nodded as he and Skye left to double check the information for anything useful. Leaving Fury alone with a single thought ' _Please don't let us be too late.'_

* * *

The last thing that Steve had expected when security had called to tell him that he had a visitor was that it was Rebecca Jacobson. He'd been even more surprised when she told him that she needed to speak with him privately about a matter of security. Which is how they'd all ended up in his quarters himself, Sam, Rebecca, and J.A.R.V.I.S.

An uneasy silence had fallen over the room once they'd arrived and Steve had introduced Sam and Rebecca to one another. The soldier decided that it was time to find out what was going on. "So, Ms. Jacobson what is it that you needed to discuss?"

Before beginning what, she was sure would be a long-winded explanation, to say the least. She placed a flash drive on the table in front of her. "What I'm about to tell you is going to seem ludicrous, but it can all be verified by looking at the data on this flash drive."

When the two soldiers didn't make a move to stop her she took it as a sign to continue. "What if I told you that there was more to HYDRA then you knew or even thought you knew?"

Steve became rigid, he immediately sits up straighter. "I would say that you have my full attention."

"There is another HYDRA so to speak, it's known as the Heart of HYDRA. We refer to it as the Heart for short, the mission of the Heart is to make sure that HYDRA never finds itself in the same shape that it was after the war.

The Heart exists in secret from the rest of HYDRA anyone that knew of its existence is now dead. The Heart has its hands in everything HYDRA related. They have resources in place to basically start HYDRA all over again should you manage to topple the current regime led by Strucker. Captain, please believe me when I tell you this. They have resources you can't even imagine, many right under people's noses.

They keep all these resources separate from HYDRA so that the anonymity of the organization can remain intact. As it stands now the Heart is larger with more resources then the original HYDRA had at its peak during the war. The organization is led by a woman named Caitlyn Peirce the daughter of Alexander Peirce."

Steve interrupted her before she could continue. "The authorities investigated Peirce's close family, after the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D."

"They did, but you see Captain the woman living as Caitlyn Peirce is in fact not the real Caitlyn. She is nothing more than someone who's there as a cover. Someone who has lived a clean and perfectly legal life. Not someone that could be tied to HYDRA in any way save for her late fathers' affiliation.

You see that is how the Heart operates, we're taken as children, sorted based on aptitude and then trained and raised with one purpose. To ensure the survival of HYDRA above all else."

"That's insane they just take you from your families and no one notices?!" Sam was mortified by what he just heard, and a bit angry. He may work at a VA hospital but, he'd seen his share of children left without parents thanks to the effects of war.

Rebecca smiled despite the situation, Sam's outburst combined with the look on the Captains face told her she had made the right choice. "Not me I was born into it. You see I'm third-generation my grandparents were among the original Heart members. Both my parents were born into it, they were then paired. When I was four my sorting and training began. It was decided that Greg and I were a good match, so our families were told that we would be married one day.

But that's not why I'm here. I'm here because things are about to get worse and you need to stop it."

Steve could both see the panic on her face and hear it in her voice. He knew that whatever else she may be, she was truly scared of what she was about to divulge. "Okay tell me what's going on."

She took a deep breath before continuing her story, in truth this part scared her. It's one of the reasons she decided to leave the Heart. "For some time now, the Heart has been working on a weapons program code-named Project Tin Man. It's all about using tech that Stark developed and weaponizing it for HYDRAs use. The centerpiece of this project is Iron Man drones like the ones Justin Hammer used to try and kill your pal Tony Stark with a few years back.

They got everything they needed from Hammer once the authorities arrested him. After making some improvements and working out some kinks. They built a facility where the drones can be manufactured. Now they're finally ready to mass producing the drones. The current estimate is that they'll have 500,000 Iron Man drones by years end. With work quietly beginning on another manufacturing facility.

I don't need to tell you how bad it will be for everyone if this isn't stopped."

She was right Steve didn't need her to tell him how bad it would be. While he was a firm believer that having quality, soldiers were always preferable to having a high quantity of soldiers. With that many drones it wouldn't really matter, they would never tire, never need to be fed. Factor in the next-gen tech and you have a recipe for disaster.

Still, the soldier found the timing of this information suspect, he needed more proof. "No offense ma'am. How do we know that you're telling us the truth?"

It was a fair question, in truth, she would've been worried if her story hadn't been questioned. "The flash drive has all the data that you'll need to prove my story. As well as seeing the Heart's entire network. If that isn't proof enough then go and visit Justin Hammer in prison, that should give you the proof that you need. Or at least enough to make you realize that something isn't right."

The soldier glanced down at the flash drive, it looked harmless. He knew from personal experience that sometimes these things could cause a lot of trouble. "J.A.R.V.I.S. can you scan this drive for any harmful software, without infecting any of the tower's systems, or yourself?"

"Of course, I can Captain, just insert the drive into the laptop." The A.I. almost sounded touched at the soldier's concern about its welfare.

While the A.I. was working Sam thought that someone should address the obvious question. "Why are you doing this? Why bring us this information? Why turn on your husband and your organization?"

"That's a fair question, frankly I was surprised that neither of you led with it. It would be easy to tell you that my husband is a jerk and that my organization doesn't value me, or that I'm sick of killing people. Truth is they would all be lies. Greg has been my best friend since I was five years old, we love each other and he's good to me.

My organization does value me, I work in web design and marketing. The internet especially social media was the best thing to ever happen for HYDRA. While I may be a part of HYDRA, but I've never taken a life. Truth is I love my husband and I know that he loves me. The problem is that he is truly devoted to HYDRA and its cause. He hopes to one day sit at the head of the table and lead the Heart.

He believes in it so much that he would have no trouble handing our child over to them. I don't want that life for my child, and that's why I am doing this. See I found out a week ago that I'm pregnant. So, instead of telling Greg and asking him to come with me, and us raise this child HYDRA free. I ran, I ran to the only person who I knew would listen to me." She did her best not to let the emotion that she was feeling in her voice. However, she knew that she was failing in that task. She had to stay strong this was no life for a child to be born into. She was going to do for this child what no one had done for her, give he/she a choice.

Both Sam and Steve were shocked and dismayed at the information that had just been relayed to them. Sam also felt a bit guilty about being so harsh with her just a moment ago. The former airman knew he had to make this right. "I'm sorry about a minute ago. I know it's no excuse but I didn't know."

Steve had another concern one that needed to be addressed. "What happens to you now?"

It was a simple question, the look on the soldier's face told her he already suspected the answer. "I'm a traitor who just handed a shit ton of secrets to HYDRAs most feared and hated enemy. They will issue a capture and kill order on me. Which I why I plan to go into hiding once I leave here."

The soldier had been worried that was the direction all of this was heading. Before he could tell the others in the room what he was thinking J.A.R.V.I.S. interrupted. "Sir the drive is free of any malicious software. Would you like for me to display its contents?"

"Yes, please."

At the soldier's command, the area lit up with holograms. Among the images were folders labeled personnel, shell companies, assets, projects, and threat assessments. It was a holographic image of office buildings that caught Steve's eye. Opening it brought up a holographic diagram of corporations and businesses. With a listing of the business, what the public thought it did, what it did to benefit the Heart, and how much revenue it brought in for the organization.

Both the airman and the soldier recognized a few of the companies in the diagram. Halo International, Samson Biotech, and Mercury Arms. Steve was alarmed this was too much, this organization was too large to cripple it the way HYDRA had been.

Sam could see the look on his friends face, he saw the same defeated look he had seen when Steve showed up in D.C. "Come on man now we have our proof that those companies are tied to HYDRA, they're just not connected the way we thought they were."

The soldier could only nod at Sam's words, his tactical mind already processing this new information. In one instant the tide of the war had changed again this time heavily in favor of HYDRA. "Yeah."

Watching the two friends and hearing their conversation. Realization suddenly dawned on Rebecca. "You two were already investigating the Heart.!"

The soldier only offered her a slight nod before replying. "Well in a way. We thought that these three companies had ties to HYDRA, and the two of us were looking into them. We had no idea, however; just how big and deep this goes."

"Well glad I could help then. Hopefully, I helped and haven't made the situation worse."

"You haven't trust me, it's better to know what we're up against.

Sam could only shake his head at his friend's optimism. "Sad thing is he really believes that. Me personally I was happy living in ignorance."

She had to admit that the camaraderie between the two friends was contagious. There was one more thing that she had to give the Captain. "Captain before I forget there's one more thing that I need to give you. A friend went to great lengths and risk to get me this. I'm trusting this to you, not the Avengers, not the government, and not the new version of S.H.I.E.L.D."

She pulled another flash drive out of her pocket and placed it in the soldier's hand. "This drive can only be accessed once, then it will be rendered useless. The contents of this drive are for your use only. I need you to promise me that you won't share it with the Avengers or anyone else for that matter."

"I have a feeling I will come to regret that promise, but ok you have my word." The soldier took the drive and put it in his pocket.

The soldier snapped back to reality, he knew what needed to be done and they needed to work fast. "First off you're not running anywhere, you can stay here for the time being. We have a couple of people that can give you a good head start on hiding from HYDRA. J.A.R.V.I.S. and Sam can show you to your room.

Stay there and don't come out until either Sam or myself come for you.

J.A.R.V.I.S. initiate command protocol theta – 17" The soldier was quick and precise in his commands. Things had changed drastically with the arrival of Rebecca Jacobson. There was still one more arrangement he needed to make.

"Captain protocol theta – 17 has been implemented. Mr. Wilson, please escort Ms. Jacobson as I direct you both to her room." As always, the A.I. was quick and efficient in its response.

Steve was happy at the speed at which the A.I. completed its task. Since reforming the team had come up with a set of protocols that pertained to official Avengers business. This protocol involved protecting VIPs and witnesses. As the leader of the team, Steve had access to all 112 protocols. "Thank you J.A.R.V.I.S. If it's no trouble I need to know if Pepper is still in her office. If she is would you mind asking her if she would speak with me, please."

The soldier took the flash drive off the coffee table and put it in his private lockbox. Before he knew what was happening the screen on his wall lit up with the image of Pepper Potts. "Steve J.A.R.V.I.S. said that you needed to speak with me. Is everything alright?"

"I'm sorry Pepper I would've come up to your office, I'm sorry for the bother. I was wondering if you're still leaving for California in the morning?" He really hadn't expected that the A.I. would connect them via video, he really was coming to appreciate the A.I. in a way he never had before the investigation had started.

"I am, we have to be in the air by 6:00 a.m."

"Well, I was hoping to wrap up my business tomorrow. I was wondering if Sam and myself could purchase a couple of seats on the jet and fly out with you?"

"Of course, you can, but keep your money. I mean what's the point in having a private jet if you can't share it with friends?" She was genuinely happy that the soldier had come to her. She'd had a hard time getting him to open up since he'd arrived at the tower.

"Thank you, Pepper, I promise we will stay out of your way."

"It's no problem, Steve. Now if you'll excuse me I need to get some sleep, goodnight."

The soldier nodded as it was getting late. "Goodnight."

With those words, the video call ended as abruptly as it had begun.

There was still one task to do before he turned in for the night. "J.A.R.V.I.S. please inform Sam of our travel plans. Also, can you take the data from the flash drive that's plugged into the computer and incorporate it into the info we already have?"

"Yes, Captain I am already working on the task now."

"Thanks, J.A.R.V.I.S. I'm going to bed now, but when I return home tomorrow. It will be time to let the team in on what's going on, now that we have proof."

The A.I. seemed delighted to hear the news. "Very good sir, I will leave you to it then."

With that Steve went to prepare for bed, hoping that tomorrow Justin Hammer would bring a number of matters to a close.


End file.
